Oil prices extend gains after U.S. production drop
Xinhua,January 12, 2018 Adjust font size:
NEW YORK, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices continued to rally Thursday as traders continued to cheer over a surprise decline in U.S. production and a larger-than-expected drawdown in U.S. crude stockpiles.
U.S. output fell unexpectedly by nearly 300,000 barrels a day to 9.49 million barrels a day last week, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Wednesday.
Meanwhile, U.S. crude inventories decreased by 4.9 million barrels to 419.5 million barrels last week, touching the lowest level since August, 2015, said the EIA.
Oil prices posted gains in all the four past sessions this week. A rally that began in June accelerated in December, with crude prices surging about 15 percent over the last month.
Analysts said that oil prices have been undeniably bullish this week despite the lingering concerns about the current bull rally running out of its course.
The West Texas Intermediate for February delivery increased 0.23 U.S. dollar to settle at 63.80 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for March delivery added 0.06 dollar to close at 69.26 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange. Enditem