Crude oil and refined product futures were seeing a second day of gains Thursday following Wednesday's Energy Information Administration report showing strong demand and shrinking petroleum stockpiles in the U.S.
U.S. oil prices were rising by more than $1/bbl, with December West Texas Intermediate crude climbing by $1.13 to $69.74/bbl and January prices up $1.04 to $69.22/bbl. Brent crude was seeing lighter gains, with the December contract ahead by 81cts to $73.36/bbl and January moving up 97cts to $73.13/bbl.
Diesel futures were leading refined products higher, with November ULSD prices jumping by 3.79cts to $2.2255/gal and December climbing by 4.08cts to $2.2393/gal. The front-month RBOB contract was up by 1.94cts to $2.0151/gal and December prices ahead by 2.41cts to $1.9831/gal.
Gasoline and diesel prices were rising in spot markets around the country in response to the futures gains, with most increases reflecting those on the Nymex screen.
The gains came after the EIA on Wednesday reported a 2.7 million bbl decline in U.S. gasoline inventories in the week ending Friday, and a drop of 1 million bbl in distillate supplies. U.S. crude inventories fell by about 500,000 bbl during the week.
The inventory declines came as EIA reported that implied gasoline demand during the week was a strong 9.16 million b/d, up 5.3% from the same time last year.
While U.S. gasoline demand has been lackluster so far this year, EIA data show that over the past four weeks, gasoline demand has averaged nearly 3.4% higher than the same time last year.
This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
--Reporting by Steve Cronin, scronin@opisnet.com; Editing by Michael Kelly, mkelly@opisnet.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-31-24 1236ET
