Off the wire
Chinese firm adds more coaches to boost Nigeria's rail transport  • U.S. State Department designates 3 individuals as global terrorists  • More than 44,000 Americans without power in bitter winter storm  • 2nd LD Writethru: "Bomb Cyclone" batters eastern U.S., causing travel chaos, deaths  • Ethiopian parliament urges swift measures to resolve ethnic dispute  • Moroccan gov't promises new development projects for restive eastern region  • Sudan recalls ambassador to Egypt for talks  • Spotlight: Turkey sees sharp rise in femicide cases after failed coup attempt in 2016  • British PM apologizes for delays, cancellations hitting NHS hospitals  • Dow closes above 25,000 for first time after strong jobs data  
You are here:  

Oil prices climb on falling inventories

Xinhua,January 05, 2018 Adjust font size:

NEW YORK, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices rose on Thursday as official data showed U.S. crude inventories declined last week.

U.S. commercial crude stockpiles fell by 7.4 million barrels in the week through Dec. 29, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report on Thursday. Economists had projected that crude in U.S. storage would decline by 5.7 million barrels.

Meanwhile, freezing weather in the United States spurred short-term demand, especially for heating oil.

The West Texas Intermediate for February delivery added 0.38 dollar to settle at 62.01 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for March delivery gained 0.23 dollar to close at 68.07 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange. Enditem