Crude oil prices forged ahead on Wednesday despite data showing the second-largest weekly climb on record for domestic crude supplies, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
March West Texas Intermediate crude rose 17 cents, or 0.3%, to settle at $52.34 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
April Brent crude, the global benchmark, inched up by 7 cents, or 0.1%, to end trading at $55.12 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected increase in crude-oil supplies—their fifth weekly rise in a row and the second-biggest on record, based on EIA data going back to 1982.
Crude inventories climbed by 13.8 million barrels in domestic crude oil supplies for the week ending February 3. Late Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute reported a 14.2 million-barrel jump, while analysts polled by S&P Global Platts forecast a climb of 2.5 million barrels.
Weekly crude stockpiles haven’t climbed by this much since the week ending October 28, when supplies rose by a record 14.4 million barrels. Crude inventories total 508.6 million barrels—about “3.5 million barrels short of their all-time record high witnessed last April,” said Vincent.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, March natural gas fell less than half a cent to $3.126 per million British thermal units. A survey from S&P Global Platts showed expectations for a decline of 151 billion cubic feet.