Forexpros – Crude oil futures were up sharply for the third day on Thursday, jumping to a four-day high after official data showed a large drop in U.S. oil supplies last week, while investors awaited the outcome of the European Central Bank’s policy meeting later in the day.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in November traded at USD80.73 a barrel during European morning trade, jumping 1.32%.
It earlier rose by as much as 1.8% to trade at USD81.14 a barrel, the highest price since September 30.
Crude prices rallied by nearly 5.3% on Wednesday after weekly data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed that U.S. crude oil inventories declined by 4.7 million barrels last week, confounding expectations for a 1.5 million barrel increase.
Total motor gasoline inventories declined by 1.14 million barrels, while supplies of distillate fuel, including heating oil and diesel fell by 0.74 million barrels.
Total U.S. crude oil inventories stood at 336.3 million barrels as of last week, the lowest level since January, easing concerns over a slowdown in demand from the world’s largest energy consumer.
Crude prices found further support amid hopes that euro zone policy makers will take action to stem the region’s debt crisis from spreading to the banking system.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said earlier that EU officials were proposing coordinated action to recapitalize the region’s banks, while the Financial Times reported late Wednesday that European bank regulators will conduct a new round of evaluations on regional banks.
Oil traders were awaiting the outcome of the European Central Bank’s policy meeting later in the day, at which the bank was widely expected to leave rates unchanged at 1.5%.
The rate decision will be followed by a closely-watched press conference by ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet, who will be heading his final interest rate meeting as ECB chief.
Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for November delivery rose 0.64% to trade at USD103.39 a barrel, up USD22.66 a barrel on its U.S. counterpart.
Oil traders continued to monitor developments in Libya in order to asses how quickly oil production in the country would return to pre-war levels.
The largest international oil producer operating in Libya, Eni SpA said it feared its largest oilfield in the North African nation might be in ruins, dampening hopes for an early return of Libyan supplies to the market.
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