Oil futures continued their climb Wednesday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported an unexpected decline in crude supplies for the week ended Nov. 16.
Crude supplies fell by 1.5 million barrels. Analysts polled by Platts expected a one-million-barrel increase. Motor gasoline supplies also fell 1.5 million barrels, while distillate stocks dropped 2.7 million barrels, the EIA report said.
Analysts had forecast a rise of 1.25 million barrels for gasoline inventories and a fall of one million barrels in distillate supplies.
Following the latest data, January crude traded at $87.45 U.S. a barrel, up 70 cents. It was trading around that same level shortly before the report.
The American Petroleum Institute reported late Tuesday that crude supplies fell 1.9 million barrels last week.
