That contradicts the 2.8 million-barrel increase expected by analysts polled by S&P Global Platts.
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LONDON, Sept 22 (Reuters) – Oil rose for a second day on Thursday as a weaker dollar and a surprisingly large drop in US crude inventories emboldened investors ahead of next week’s meeting between OPEC members and Russian Federation to discuss supply.
“Global production is at 94m barrels per day, of which we need to go down 9 million barrels per day to sustain the level of consumption”, Del Pino said in an interview with state oil company PDVSA’s internal TV station. It carries 1.3 million barrels of the fuel a day.
Imports to the U.S. Gulf, however, dropped sharply to 2.9 million bpd from 3.4 million bpd the previous week, close to record low rate of 2.5 million bpd hit in the week to September 2 when a Tropical Storm Hermine disrupted supplies.
Traders said that the main WTI price driver had been American Petroleum Institute data showing a 7.5 million barrel draw to 507.2 million barrels in USA crude inventories, the third weekly stock draw.
Gasoline stocks fell 3.2 million barrels nationwide, compared with analysts’ expectations for a 567,000-barrel drop.
The drawdown, along with a more benign outlook for US monetary policy, overshadowed news Russian oil output hit a new record above 11 million barrels per day this week and that Libya had exported its first oil cargo since at least 2014 from the port of Ras Lanuf.
Refinery crude runs fell 143,000 bpd as utilization rates fell 0.9 percentage point to 92 percent of total capacity, EIA data showed.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 526,000 barrels, EIA said.
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US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 1.79%, or 79 cents, at $44.84 a barrel at 0027 GMT, buoyed by a contractual rollover into higher-demand November as a front-month.
