“The overall picture is still the same and you’re not going to scare away sellers”, said Ian Weir, managing director energy derivatives at Elite Brokers LLC. Over the last four weeks, crude oil imports averaged over 7.2 million barrels per day, 3.8% below the same four-week period previous year.
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US benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery gained $2.74 to $45.94 per barrel.
Crude markets pared earlier gains in the session as disappointing USA economic data curbed investor enthusiasm after Wednesday’s 6% price spike.
In refined products, RBOB heating oil futures fell 0.005 dollar or 0.332 percent to trade at USD 1.499 a gallon at the NYMEX.
The trading sentiment dampened in futures trade after oil prices tumbled in Asia today, cutting short a rally the day before after hints of an interest rate hike in December by the US Federal Reserve boosted the dollar, analysts said.
Dollar-denominated oil futures contracts tend to fall when the dollar rises, as this makes oil more expensive for buyers in other currencies. American gross domestic product grew at a 1.5 percent annual rate, in line with the 1.6 percent median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg, Commerce Department data showed Thursday in Washington. This is expected to weigh on the minds of Fed officials. Refinery utilization also rose to 87.6% from 86.4%. Crude futures fell on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve kept rates unchanged and a weekly government report on oil stockpiles showed an inventory build that was within expectations.
Eni, Italy’s largest energy producer, experienced a loss of 952 million euros ($1 billion) in the third quarter and sold 12.5 percent of its oil-field services company Saipem, after Eni’s gas and power unit reported that the losses and higher taxes hurt exploration and production.
However, USA oil output, whose booming growth in the past few years has fueled the global glut of crude, rose slightly last week.
Tanks have been filled in part by refinery maintenance season, which has decreased the amount of oil processed into fuels and sent the unused oil into storage.
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Margarita Papchenkova and Jenny W. Hsu contributed to this article.
