Oil settles up 1% on US crude and fuel stock draw, Venezuela supply worries
Oil prices rose on Wednesday, buoyed by government data showing U.S. crude oil and fuel inventories fell last week and by mounting concerns about tighter global supply following the U.S. threat of tariffs on nations buying Venezuelan crude.
Brent crude futures settled up 77 cents, or 1.05%, at $73.79 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures settled up 65 cents, or 0.94%, at $69.65 a barrel.
At their session highs, both benchmarks were up more than $1 a barrel.
U.S. crude oil inventories fell last week as refiners kept ramping up production, while gasoline and distillate stockpiles also dropped, the Energy Information Administration said.
Crude inventories fell by 3.3 million barrels to 433.6 million barrels in the week ended March 21, the EIA said, a deeper draw than the 956,000 barrels that analysts had expected in a Reuters poll.
Source: Reuters
