Crude oil prices rose 2% in Wednesday’s trading, thanks to increased U.S. energy consumption as shown by falling inventories last week of U.S. crude oil, gasoline and distillate. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported the demand grew as refining activity and demand strengthened.
Crude stocks fell by 961,000 barrels to 422.8 million barrels last week, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.2 million-barrel rise.
It was a second straight day of higher oil prices as Brent crude futures rose $1.22, or 1.99%, to $62.54 a barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures climbed $1.24, or 2.17%, to $58.48 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
While oil prices finished up, natural gas prices slumped nearly 1% on Wednesday. Prices settled at $3.445 MMBtu after a fall of $0.029 or 0.83%.
Most Oklahoma energy stocks finished the day with gains including Empire Petroleum with a more than 6% jump. It proved to be the most gain of any of the stocks we follow on a daily basis. NGL Energy Partners finished with a nearly 3% increase.