Oil futures recovered and traded higher on Wednesday after U.S. government data confirmed a drop in crude oil inventories, marking the third unexpected weekly decline in a row, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
November West Texas Intermediate crude tacked on $1.29, or 2.9%, to settle at $45.34 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
November Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose by 10 cents to settle at $46.93 a barrel in electronic trading on London’s ICE Futures Exchange.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that domestic crude oil supplies fell by 6.2 million barrels in the week ending September 16. S&P Global Platts polled analysts who suggested that a 2.8 million-barrel climb was expected. Meanwhile, the American Petroleum Institute reported a larger drop of 7.5 million barrels, according to the report.
“We continue to look to the upside for oil prices in the next weeks, where $50 is the target area for us,” said Nico Pantelis, head of research at Secular Investor.
Natural gas futures headed higher for a second session, poised to settle at a level not seen since January 2015. “Weather continues to be the overall leading factor behind the move as power generation demand has been continually elevated,” said Robbie Fraser, commodity analyst at Schneider Electric.
October natural gas rose a penny to settle at $3.057 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange.