Domestic oil prices settled with a slight gain on Wednesday after government data confirmed that domestic crude supplies dropped, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch. The decrease was much less than the market anticipated.
June West Texas Intermediate crude rose 16 cents, or 0.3%, to settle at $47.82 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
On the London ICE Futures Exchange, July Brent crude, the global benchmark, added 33 cents, or 0.7%, to end trading at $50.79 a barrel.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported early Wednesday that domestic crude supplies fell by 900,000 barrels for the week ending April 28, on the heels of three straight weeks of declines. The size of the decline was well below the 4.2 million-barrel drop reported by the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday. Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts forecast a larger decline of 2.25 million barrels.
Total weekly domestic crude production rose by 28,000 barrels to 9.293 million barrels a day, according to the EIA data.
“As U.S. production continues to rise…it should begin to weigh on [OPEC’s] decision to extend OPEC production cuts,” said John Macaluso, an analyst at Tyche Capital Advisors.
Back on the New York Mercantile Exchange, June natural gas ended at $3.228 per million British thermal units, up 3.3 cents, or 0.7%, ahead of the EIA’s weekly update on U.S. natural gas inventories, due out Thursday. Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts forecast a rise of 61 billion cubic feet.