Oil futures rose early Wednesday, finding support after industry data showed a large draw to U.S. crude inventories.
Traders were also monitoring Hurricane Idalia in the Gulf Coast of Florida and Gabon — one of Africa’s largest oil producers and a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC — which is in the middle of a coup.
Price action
-
West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery
CL00,
+0.41%CLV23,
+0.41%
rose 48 cents, or 0.6%, to $81.64 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. -
October Brent crude
BRNV23,
+0.28%,
the global benchmark, was up 43 cents, or 0.5%, at $85.92 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. November Brent
BRN00,
+0.28%BRNX23,
+0.28%,
the most actively traded contract, gained 39 cents, or 0.5%, to $85.30 a barrel.
Market drivers
The American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday said U.S. crude inventories fell by 11.5 million barrels last week, according to market sources citing the data, while gasoline inventories rose 1.4 million barrels and distillates increased by 2.5 million barrels.
“Another sharp drop in oil inventories was reported by API. If the 11.5 mln barrel drop is confirmed, U.S. private oil stocks would be the lowest in a year,” Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex, said in a note.
The Energy Information Administration will release official inventory figures Wednesday morning. Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Commodity Insights, on average, expect crude inventories to show a decline of 5.2 million barrels, on strong refinery demand and exports. Gasoline inventories are expected to show a fall of 600,000 barrels to around 217 million barrels, analysts said, while distillate stocks were seen 1.4 million barrels lower at around 115.3 million barrels.
Analysts said there were so far no signs of disruption to oil production in Gabon after mutinous soldiers said they were overturning the results of a presidential election.
TotalEnergies
TTE,
+0.99%
and Maurel & Prom
MAU,
-18.45%
are among the western oil companies with operations in the country.
Hurricane Idalia made landfall on Florida’s west coast as a Category 3 storm.
Oil producer Chevron Corp.
CVX,
-0.16%
on Tuesday said it evacuated nonessential personnel from two Gulf of Mexico oil platforms and all personnel from a third as Idalia approached, according to news reports. Chevron removed nonessential personnel from its Blind Faith and Petronious platforms and all staff from its Genesis platform, which is being decommissioned. Production was continuing at Chevron-operated oil and gas facilities in the Gulf, according to Reuters.
