WTI futures gain after DoE reports sharp drop in weekly stockpiles

Commercial stockpiles of crude oil and products in the US dropped sharply during the latest reference week on the back of a large fall in net imports.

According to the Energy Information Administration, the Department of Energy's statistical arm, over the week ending on 23 August, crude oil inventories shrank by 10.0m barrels to reach 427.8m barrels.

Although that drop mirrored the decline seen in rival data published by the American Petroleum Institute during the night before, it was still far more than the 2.11m barrel fall that analysts had been anticipating.

Product inventories also declined sharply, with those of gasoline down by 2.1m barrels and those of distillates by the same amount.

The key driver behind the fall in stockpiles was a 1.51m barrel a day drop in America's net imports to 2.91m b/d.

Domestic US oil output on the other hand hit another record, rising from 12.3m b/d to 12.5m b/d.

Refineries meanwhile operated at 95.2% of their capacity.

In response to the latest inventory numbers, as of 1638 BST front month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures were rising by 2.12% to $56.12 a barrel on NYMEX, alongside a gain of 1.75% to $60.57 for similarly-dated Brent.