Oil Prices Climb As EIA Reports A 7th Straight Weekly Decline In U.S. Crude Inventories

Crude oil futures rose Wednesday, finding support after U.S. government data revealed that U.S. inventories declined for a seventh week in a row, but traded off the session’s high as gasoline stockpiles unexpectedly climbed.

Overall, the report was bullish, but crude supplies are “only going to get worse in the coming weeks” because inventories are “stretched  and refiners are coming on back faster than supply of crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico”, Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at The Price Futures Group, told MarketWatch. “Gasoline inventories were up but that normally happens at this time of year,” so it’s partly seasonal and partly because of data that has been skewed due to Hurricane Ida,” he said.

The Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday that U.S. crude inventories fell by 3.5 million barrels for the week ended Sept. 17. That compared with the average decline of 3.8 million barrels expected by analysts polled by S&P Global Platts forecast. The EIA had reported crude supply declines in each of the previous six weeks.

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Source: MarketWatch