Oil futures climbed nearly 6% on Wednesday as a smaller-than-expected weekly increase in U.S. crude supplies and a higher demand forecast from the International Energy Agency lifted prices to their highest settlement level of the year.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, May crude jumped $3.10, or 5.8%, to settle at $56.39 U.S. a barrel. Futures prices, which tallied a five-session gain of almost 12%, haven’t settled at a level this high since December 23.
May Brent crude which expired Wednesday on London’s ICE Futures exchange, rose $1.89, or 3.2%, to $60.32 U.S. a barrel.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday reported that crude inventories climbed by 1.3 million barrels for the week ended April 10. That was smaller than the 3.5 million barrels forecast by analysts polled by Platts and the 2.6-million-barrel increase reported by the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday.
Production was down 20,000 barrels a day last week and output has been down two of the last three weeks, one expert said.
The EIA also said gasoline supplies were down by 2.1 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles rose two million barrels last week. Analysts polled by Platts were looking for a decline of 900,000 barrels for gasoline supplies and a fall of 150,000 for distillates, which include heating oil.
On Nymex, products rallied along with crude. May gasoline surged 10 cents, or 5.5%, to $1.936 U.S. a gallon and May heating oil added 8.7 cents, or 4.8%, to $1.889 U.S. a gallon.
In a separate monthly report issued Wednesday, the International Energy Agency upwardly revised its oil demand growth estimate for 2015 by 90,000 barrels a day to 93.6 million barrels a day.
Also on Nymex, May natural gas ended at $2.61 U.S. per million British thermal units, up eight cents, or 3.2%, ahead of Thursday’s weekly U.S. government report on supplies.
