The drop in U.S. crude oil and fuel inventories last week prompted a more than 1% gain in oil prices on Wednesday.
The price increase was also aided by growing concerns of a tighter global supply as the result of the U.S. threat of tariffs on countries that buy Venezuelan crude oil. At one point in Wednesday’s trading, both benchmarks were up more than $1 a barrel.
Crude inventories fell by 3.3 million barrels to 433.6 million barrels in the week ended March 21, the EIA said, a deeper draw than the 956,000 barrels that analysts had expected in a Reuters poll.
West Texas Intermediate crude finished up 65 cents or 0.94% at $69.65 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude,the global standard, rose 77 cents or 1.05% to close at $73.79 a barrel.
Oklahoma energy stocks were split on Wednesday as about half of those listed had losses of 1-2%. Gainers were in the same category.
