Oil futures held their gains Wednesday, after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a smaller-than-expected fall in crude supplies for the week ended Dec. 14.
Crude supplies fell by one million barrels. Analysts polled by Platts expected a 2.3 million-barrel decline. Motor gasoline supplies rose by 2.2 million barrels, while distillate stocks declined 1.1 million barrels, the EIA report said.
Analysts had forecast a rise of two million barrels for gasoline inventories and a climb of 1.5 million barrels in distillate supplies. Following the latest data, January crude traded at $88.35 U.S. a barrel, up 42 cents, or 0.5%. It was trading around $88.40 U.S. ahead of the report.
The American Petroleum Institute reported late Tuesday that crude supplies fell 4.1 million barrels last week
