Oil up sharply driven by data on US stocks

Brent was worth $ 42.59 around 11:30 a.m. in London, up 3.20% from Tuesday. In New York, the WTI gained 3.28%, to 40.56 dollars.

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Oil prices rose on Wednesday, helped by lower US stocks released by the API on Tuesday and the hope that this would be confirmed by more reliable EIA figures later today.

Around 9:30 a.m. GMT (11:30 a.m.CET), a barrel of Brent North Sea crude for delivery in September, which is the first day of use as a benchmark contract, was worth $ 42.59 in London, up 3, 20% compared to Tuesday’s close.

In New York, the American barrel of WTI for the month of August gained 3.28%, to 40.56 dollars.

The day before, the two benchmarks each lost a little more than 1%.

The figures published Tuesday at the end of the day by the American Petroleum Institute (API), a federation which gathers the professionals of the petroleum sector, “allay the concerns (of the investors) who surround a fall of the economic activity” in the United States said Avtar Sandu, analyst at Phillip Futures.

The API reported an unexpected drop in crude oil stocks of 8.2 million barrels last week.

In addition, “gasoline inventories have fallen 2.5 million barrels, also exceeding expectations,” added Stephen Brennock of PVM, an encouraging sign of renewed demand from the world’s largest crude producer.

“More official EIA data is expected today,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya of Swissquote Bank, however.

The American Energy Information Agency’s (EIA) highly-monitored weekly report on crude stocks in the country is considered more reliable than that of the API, which usually appeared the day before.

According to the median of analysts interviewed by the Bloomberg agency, US crude reserves for the week ended June 26 are expected to decline, on a scale less significant than that of the API, with 500,000 barrels less.

US stocks hit a record high for the week ended June 19 at 540.7 million barrels.

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