Oil prices climb amid fall in U.S. stockpiles

Trend:

Oil prices rose over 1% on Wednesday to hit their highest in nearly a month as widely-watched data showed U.S. crude stockpiles fell more than expected, underpinning a market already buoyed by worries over potential U.S.-Iran conflict, Trend reports citing Reuters.

Front-month Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were up 1.4% at $65.97 by 0006 GMT. They earlier touched their highest since May 31 at $66.00 a barrel.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $58.97 per barrel, up 2% from their last settlement. WTI earlier hit its strongest level since May 30 at $59.03 a barrel.

Analysts said the moves were mainly driven by American Petroleum Institute (API) data showing a fall in U.S. crude inventories.

U.S. crude stockpiles dropped by 7.5 million barrels in the week ended June 21 to 474.5 million, compared with analyst expectations for a decrease of 2.5 million barrels, the data showed. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub fell by 1.3 million barrels.