Oil prices rebound on big U.S. stockpile drawdown
Xinhua, August 4, 2016 Adjust font size:
Oil prices posted solid gains Wednesday as official data from the country showed a larger-than-expected gasoline inventory drawdown.
The West Texas Intermediate for September delivery rose 1.32 U.S. dollars to settle at 40.83 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for October delivery increased 1.30 dollars to close at 43.10 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
U.S. gasoline stocks slumped by 3.3 million barrels last week, exceeding market forecasts of a 200,000-barrel drop, according to the Energy Information Administration's (EIA) weekly report Wednesday.
Meanwhile, preliminary weekly production data indicated that U.S. crude output fell below 8.5 million barrels per day.
U.S. crude inventories, however, added 1.4 million barrels last week, compared with market expectations for a decrease of 1.4 million barrels.
Analysts believed that investors bought the dip also contributed to the rebound.
On Tuesday, oil prices extended losses, with the U.S. oil settling below 40 dollars a barrel for the first time since April, as concerns about a supply glut continued to weigh on the market. Endit