EIA Reports Bullish Inventory: WTI Crude Oil Prices Rise

On Thursday, gains were capped by a series of bearish data releases.

Automated systems and traders who move based on price-chart patterns pushed a rally into a second session, turning bullish after a surge on Wednesday led to a two-week high settlement, the brokers added.

USA economic growth braked sharply in the third quarter as businesses cut back on restocking warehouses to work off an inventory glut, data showed.

“With the Federal Reserve holding off on interest rates hikes on Wednesday, the market will keep watch on the December meeting where a rate hike is likely in play”, said Sanjeev Gupta, head of the Asia Pacific oil and gas practice at professional services firm EY.

Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for December delivery was down 16 cents to United States dollars 45.78, while Brent crude for December eased 21 cents to USD 48.84 a barrel in late-morning trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange. This is expected to weigh on the minds of Fed officials.

That, and sluggish new US home sales data, cut into a few of oil’s early gains, tempering the market’s enthusiasm over USA government crude inventory data on Wednesday that showed a smaller build than many had feared.

Inventories rose in line with traders expectations but the buildup was less than the 4.1 million barrel increase reported by industry group, the American Petroleum Institute, a day earlier.

An 800,000-barrel drop in inventories at the Cushing, Okla., trading hub and an increase in the refinery utilization rate, to 87.6 % from 86.4%, also cheered investors, signaling better demand in the oversupplied market. Total demand for products according to the EIA increased by 1% year over year to 19.5 million barrels per day.

“In the mid term, we will be still driven by the global oil glut worries”.

Tanks have been filled in part by refinery maintenance season, which has decreased the amount of oil processed into fuels and sent the unused oil into storage.

RBOB gasoline futures lost 0.006 dollar or 0.441 percent to trade at USD 1.333 a gallon at the NYMEX.

Futures edged 0.3% higher after surging 6.3% Wednesday.

Margarita Papchenkova and Jenny W. Hsu contributed to this article.