Crude Oil Prices Mixed After U.S. Inventory Data

Investing.com – Oil prices were mixed on Wednesday, even as data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed that domestic crude stockpiles declined far more than expected last week.

The U.S. West Texas Intermediate January contract was up 5 cents or about 0.10% at $57.61 a barrel by 10:30 a.m. ET (14:30 GMT). Prices were around $57.69 prior to the release of the inventory data.

Elsewhere, for February delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London was up 15 cents or about 0.22% at $63.96 a barrel.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that crude oil inventories fell by in the week ended December 15.

Market analysts’ expected a crude-stock draw of around 3.8 million barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday reported a surprise stronger than expected drop of 5.2 million barrels.

Supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma, the key delivery point for Nymex crude, increased by last week, the EIA said.

The report also showed that gasoline inventories rose by , compared to expectations for an increase of 1.9 million barrels. For distillate inventories including diesel, the EIA reported an increase of 769,000 barrels.

Oil prices had been supported in recent session after the North Sea Forties pipeline was unexpectedly shut down last week, reducing local supplies.

On the other hand, a U.S. government forecast published on Monday warned that shale production will be rising to record levels in January.

Fears that rising U.S. output would dampen OPEC’s efforts to rid the market of excess supplies have been recently weighing on sentiment, according to market participants.

The producer group, along with some non-OPEC members led by Russia, agreed last week to extend current oil output cuts for a further nine months until the end of 2018.

The deal to cut oil output by 1.8 million barrels a day (bpd) was adopted last winter by OPEC, Russia and nine other global producers. The agreement was due to end in March 2018, having already been extended once.

Elsewhere, were up 1.01% at $1.716 a gallon, while lost 2.53% to $2.624 per million British thermal units.

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