Forexpros – Crude oil futures were up on Thursday, climbing to a three-day high after official data showed that U.S. oil supplies declined the most since December last week, easing concerns over a slowdown in demand from the world’s largest oil consumer.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in September traded at USD83.78 a barrel during European morning trade, surging 2.6%.
It earlier rose as much as 3.25% to trade at USD84.43 a barrel, the highest price since August 8.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday that U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 5.2 million barrels last week, confounding expectations for a 1.5 million barrel increase.
It was the biggest decline since the week ended December 17, easing concerns over a slowdown in U.S. demand.
Total U.S. crude oil inventories stood at 349.8 million barrels as of last week, remaining slightly above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year.
Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 1.6 million barrels, after rising by 1.7 million barrels in the preceding week and confounding expectations for a 0.9 million barrel increase.
Energy traders have been closely eyeing gasoline stockpiles in recent weeks to gauge the strength of demand as the U.S. driving season was in its peak gasoline demand period.
Weakness in the dollar had also contributed to oil’s strength. The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.33% to trade at 74.61.
Oil prices typically strengthen when the U.S. currency weakens as the dollar-priced commodity becomes cheaper for holders of other currencies.
Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for September delivery jumped 1.6% to trade at USD107.11 a barrel, up USD23.33 on its U.S. counterpart.
Forexpros
