Around 3:00 p.m. GMT, a barrel of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in May took 0.86%, to 69.93 dollars.
Commercial crude oil inventories surged last week in the United States, the twelfth in 13 weeks, according to figures released Wednesday by the US Energy Information Agency (EIA), but demand for refined products showed signs of strengthening.
At the end of the week ended March 17, US commercial reserves climbed 1.1 million barrels, while analysts expected a contraction of 1.8 million, according to a consensus established by the Bloomberg agency.
This accumulation comes as the utilization rate of refineries accelerated, to 88.6% against 88.2% the previous week, and as crude exports remain at a high level.
It is largely explained by a new statistical adjustment by the EIA, which added some 14 million barrels to the volumes that supplied the American market. These modifications often make it possible to correct errors in the initial estimates.
The rise in trade reserves contrasts with the increase in exports of refined products, which reached a level close to an all-time high last week.
Another encouraging sign for the market, gasoline reserves fell sharply by 6.4 million barrels, while analysts were only expecting a decrease of 2.3 million.
The movement is partly due to a rebound in US domestic demand, which rose above the symbolic threshold of 20 million barrels per day, or 4.7% better than the previous week.
Gasoline recovered, but the impetus came mainly from distilled products (+6.3% over one week), a category in which diesel fuel appears, and propane (+45.0%).
The release of the EIA benefited crude prices, which rose after starting the session around breakeven.
Around 3:00 p.m. GMT, the barrel of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in May took 0.86%, to 69.93 dollars
Last week, US crude production rose slightly to 12.3 million barrels per day, from 12.2 previously.
