Oil is rising in price on Thursday morning after a significant increase in the previous session, caused by a reduction in fuel stocks in the U.S.
The value of February futures on London’s ICE Futures Exchange is $82.54 per barrel by 8:55 Moscow time, which is $0.34 (0.41%) above the level at the end of the previous session. At the close of trading on Wednesday these contracts rose by $2.21 (2.8%) to $82.2 a barrel.
The price of WTI futures for February at electronic trades of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) is $78.67 per barrel by that time, which is $0.38 (0.49%) above the final value of the previous session. The contract rose by $2.06 (2.7%) to $78.29 per barrel at the end of last session.
Last week stocks of oil in the U.S. fell by 5.9 million barrels, said the Energy Department the day before. Experts interviewed by Bloomberg agency on average expected an increase of 2.5 million barrels.
At the same time, commercial reserves of gasoline increased by 2.53 million barrels and distillates decreased by 242,000 barrels.
“Vigorous exports and falling imports due to the Keystone pipeline shutdown led to a significant drop in crude inventories,” wrote Kplr lead oil analyst Matt Smith. – Refinery utilization has fallen to its lowest in seven weeks, which has somewhat limited the reduction in reserves, as has the release of 3.7 million barrels from strategic reserves.”
Additionally, market participants are keeping an eye on the coronavirus situation in the PRC.
“Despite skyrocketing illness rates and reports of overcrowded hospitals, Chinese authorities are not quarantining cities, which means energy demand is rising as the world’s second-largest economy gets back on track,” Sevens Report Research quoted MarketWatch analysts as saying.
