Oil prices up due to lower U.S. inventories, geopolitic concerns
Xinhua,January 05, 2018 Adjust font size:
HOUSTON, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported on Wednesday a draw of 4.992 million barrels of U.S. crude oil inventories for the week ending Dec. 29, marking the final inventory count for 2017.
Last week, the API reported a draw of six million barrels of crude oil, along with an increase in gasoline inventories of 3.1 million barrels. This week, the API is reporting another build in gasoline inventories at 1.87 million barrels for the week ending Dec. 29.
The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent were soaring on Wednesday as supply threats loom over violent protests in Iran, and supply disruptions in Libya have also surfaced.
By late Wednesday afternoon, the WTI benchmark was trading up about 2.50 percent, hitting 61.90 U.S. dollars a barrel, while Brent was trading up about 2.1 percent, near to 68 dollars a barrel. Enditem