Oil futures rose in early Asian trading on Wednesday after an industry group released weekly figures showing US stockpiles fell more than expected last week.
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Oil prices rose on bargain-buying in Asia on Wednesday after hitting two-month lows but gains were hobbled by concerns about an oversupply and weak demand after the International Monetary Fund lowered its global economic growth forecasts.
Imports of crude oil into the US exceeded 8.1 million bpd in the seven days to July 15, up 293,000 bpd from 7.8 million barrels in the previous week, which itself represented an over half a million barrel weekly draw.
United States commercial crude oil (USO) (UWTI) (SCO) (UCO) (BNO) inventories fell by about 2.5 MMbbls (million barrels) for the week ending July 8, 2016-compared to the previous week. The contract closed 0.6 percent lower at $46.66 on Tuesday. US gasoline futures briefly extended losses to hit a four-month low after the surprise build. Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell 214,000 million barrels, versus forecasts of a 600,000-barrels rise.
Global benchmark Brent crude prices were up 20 cents at $46.86 a barrel at 0947 GMT.
The U.S. government’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) will issue stockpile data at 1430 GMT on Wednesday.
“Unless the weekly report can show some larger stock changes we expect a low-volume environment to continue tomorrow and Friday”, said Olivier Jakob, oil analyst at Petromatrix.
The inventory report also showed a surprise increase in gasoline stocks USOILG=ECI , which rose by 911,000 barrels, compared with forecasts for stocks to remain unchanged.
Refinery crude runs rose by 319,000 barrels per day, EIA data showed.
Diesel output last month fell 4.5 percent from a year ago, while kerosene supply shot up 10.5 percent, the bureau said. Refinery utilization rates rose by 0.9 percentage points.
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Oil prices recovered from below $30 per barrel earlier this year in part because lower consumer fuel prices spurred demand for petroleum products.
