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Oil futures edged higher Wednesday, ahead of official data that’s expected to confirm that U.S. crude inventories fell last week.
West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery
CL00,
CLU21,
rose 32 cents, or 0.4%, to $71.97 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. September Brent crude
BRNU21,
the global benchmark, was up 20 cents, or 0.3%, at $74.68 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. October Brent
BRN00,
BRNV21,
the most actively traded contract, rose 28 cents, or 0.4%, to $73.80 a barrel.
Crude was buoyed after sources said the American Petroleum Institute reported late Tuesday that U.S. crude supplies fell by 4.7 million barrels for the week ended July 23. The API report also reportedly showed inventory declines of 6.2 million barrels for gasoline and 1.9 million barrels for distillates. Crude stocks at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery hub for Nymex oil futures, edged down by 126,000 barrels for the week, sources said.
“This reduction feeds into the narrative of supply being insufficient to meet demand, supporting oil prices as a result,” said Ricardo Evangelista, senior analyst at ActivTrades, in a note.
He noted that despite the threat posed by the spreading of the delta variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday maintained its growth forecast of 6% for the global economy in 2021, “a scenario that projects the continuation of high demand for oil and may lead to further price gains.”
Official inventory data from the Energy Information Administration will be released Wednesday. On average, the EIA is expected to show crude inventories declined by 2.5 million barrels, according to a survey of analysts conducted by S&P Global Platts. The survey also calls for supply decreases of 1.3 million barrels for gasoline and 1.6 million barrels for distillates.
