West Texas Intermediate extended its gains in the session, with a surge of more than 2% in the North American trade on Thursday, after showed that oil supplies in the U.S. registered a much larger-than-expected inventory draw.
August futures for Crude Oil in the New York Mercantile Exchange was up by $1.17 which is equal to a 2.59% increase and was traded at $46.30 per barrel by midday.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration stated in its weekly reports that Crude Oil inventories have dropped by 6.299 million barrels as the week ended, this was far greater than what market Analysts had expected which was a 2.284 million barrels decrease, while the American Petroleum Institute late Wednesday have reported a supply draw of 5.674 million barrels.
Supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma which is the key Delivery point for Nymex Crude, shows that there has been a decrease in oil inventories by 1.334 million barrels last week which was a report released by EIA. The total U.S. Crude oil inventories stands at 502.9 million barrels as of last week.
In order news, Brent’s premium to the WTI crude contract stands at $2.65 per barrel, compared to a gap of $2.66 by a close of trade on Wednesday.
Thursday’s strong rebound came after oil prices slipped by almost 4% in the previous session after reports show that exports by the OPEC members were up for the second month in June.