Drop in Crude Supplies Boosts WTI and Brent Crude Settlements on Wednesday

Crude oil futures rose again for a third consecutive gain on Wednesday as weekly government reports revealed a smaller-than-expected increase in crude supplies, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.

October West Texas Intermediate crude added $1.07, or 2.2%, to settle at $49.30 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

November Brent crude, the global benchmark, climbed 89 cents, or 1.6%, to end trading at $55.16 a barrel.

Early Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that domestic crude supplies climbed by 5.9 million barrels for the week ending September 8. The EIA report was below the forecast for a rise of 10.1 million barrels by analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts. The EIA also reported that total domestic U.S. crude output jumped by 572,000 barrels a day to 9.353 million barrels.

Late Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute reported an increase of 6.2 million barrels.

October natural gas climbed 5.7 cents, or 1.9%, to settle at $3.058 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange.