Larger-than-expected declines in U.S. oil inventories buoyed the crude oil futures market on Wednesday as trading finished higher for the day, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
September West Texas Intermediate crude rose 21 cents, or 0.5%, to end trading at $46.79 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
On London’s ICE Futures Exchange, October Brent crude, the global benchmark, added 62 cents, or 1.3%, to settle at $49.89 a barrel.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration early Wednesday reported that domestic crude supplies declined by 2.5 million barrels in the week ended Aug. 12. That was above the 200,000-barrel fall expected by analysts polled by S&P Global Platts and the 1 million-barrel drawdown reported by the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday.
The EIA report also showed that total domestic production rose by 152,000 barrels a day to 8.597 million barrels a day, with output in the lower 48 states climbing 100,000 barrels a day to 8.120 million barrels a day.
The EIA also added a notice to its weekly report explaining that its oil output estimate incorporates a “re-benchmarking”—a monthly adjustment the agency may make to address a “disconnect” between the weekly petroleum supply report, the monthly petroleum supply report and other data.
Meanwhile, September natural gas settled nearly flat at $2.619 per million British thermal units, ahead of an EIA weekly update on U.S. natural gas supplies due out Thursday.