Crude-oil futures rose for a fifth session in a row on Wednesday, with U.S. benchmark prices at their highest finish in roughly two weeks after data showed a sharper-than-expected decline in U.S. crude inventories.
West Texas Intermediate oil for October delivery CLV8, +3.20% on its first full session as a front-month contract, rose $2.02, or 3.1%, to settle at $67.86 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Based on the front-month contract, prices settled at their highest since Aug. 7 and have now climbed for five consecutive sessions, according to FactSet data.
Meanwhile, October Brent crude LCOV8, +2.99% the global benchmark, ended $2.15, or 3%, higher at $74.78 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract was also up a fifth session and settled at its highest since July 30.
The Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday that domestic crude supplies fell by 5.8 million barrels for the week ended Aug. 17. Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts had forecast a fall of about 3.4 million barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday reported a decline of 5.2 million barrels.
“As refinery runs continue to kick around close to a record high—easing just 89,000 [barrels a day] last week—and as imports have dropped off on the prior week, crude inventories have shown a solid draw, particularly on the U.S. Gulf Coast,” said Matt Smith, director of commodity research at ClipperData. “Refinery runs are up 431,000 bpd versus year-ago levels. With runs elevated, builds were seen to both gasoline and distillates.”
Gasoline stockpiles climbed by 1.2 million barrels for the week, while distillate stockpiles added 1.8 million barrels, according to the EIA. The S&P Global Platts survey forecast a supply decrease of 400,000 barrels for gasoline, along with a climb of 2 million barrels for distillate stocks.
On Nymex, September gasoline RBU8, +2.60% added 2.5% to $2.068 a gallon and September heating oil HOU8, +2.21% tacked on 2.1% to $2.168 a gallon.
Meanwhile, the EIA data also revealed that U.S. crude production climbed by 100,000 barrels to 11 million barrels a day last week. It’s up by nearly 1.5 million barrels from the same time a year ago.
Still, both grades of crude oil have enjoyed a multisession streak of gains on anticipated supply concerns as investors have been expecting a series of U.S. sanctions against Iran to eventually remove as many as 1 million to 1.5 million barrels of oil a day from global oil supplies.
“I believe that it is very likely that the price of oil may have put in its low price for the year. Barring any shock headlines or economic catastrophes, the technical seasonal outlook and the fundamentals suggest that the downside correction in oil should be over,” wrote Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group, in a Wednesday research note, ahead of the supply data.
In oil-related news Wednesday, Saudi Arabia has reportedly called off the domestic and international initial public offering of state oil company Aramco.
Investors also eyed the resumption of negotiations on Wednesday between Beijing and Washington to end their protracted tariff clash, which market participants fear could roil global markets and accelerate an economic slowdown in China—bearish factors for oil demand should they manifest.
Rounding out action in energy futures, September natural gas NGU18, -0.64% fell 0.8% to settle at $2.956 per million British thermal units, with the EIA set to report its weekly U.S. data on supplies of the fuel Thursday.
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