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1st LD Writethru: Oil prices rally on falling Cushing supplies

Xinhua, April 30, 2015 Adjust font size:

Oil prices jumped Wednesday as government data showed that inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for the U.S. contract, dropped for the first time in months.

Inventories at Cushing, the storage hub, fell 510,000 barrels to 61.68 million barrels in the week ended April 24, said Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday in its weekly report. The lower crude inventory build boosted market expectations of an easing in the supply glut.

Meanwhile, U.S. crude supplies of the week increased 1.9 million barrels to 490.9 million, 91.5 million barrels more than a year earlier. During the same period, U.S. crude production increased 7,000 barrels to 9.373 million barrels a day.

Oil prices were also supported by the weaker U.S. dollar, which decreased against most major currencies on Wednesday amid weaker- than-expected GDP report from the country. A depreciated greenback makes the dollar-priced crude less expensive and more attractive for buyers holding other currencies.

U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) rose at an annual rate of 0.2 percent in the first quarter this year, according to an advanced estimate released by the U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday.

The first quarter GDP showed a sharp slowdown from the previous quarter's 2.2 percent pace and below market consensus of an increase of 1.0 percent.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery gained 1.52 U.S. dollars to settle at 58.58 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for June delivery moved up 1.2 dollars to close at 65.84 dollars a barrel. Endite