Oil Prices Rise on US Crude Inventory Draw

Oil futures regained some positive momentum Wednesday as a US crude inventories draw dovetailed with lower shale output to stoke bullish sentiment and prompt a bout of short-covering. In London, the June Brent contract was up 42¢ and settled at $63.16 per barrel, 39¢ below its intraday high of $63.55. In New York, the front-month Nymex West Texas Intermediate (WTI) May contract gained 44¢ and closed at $59.77/bbl. US inventory movements grabbed the market's attention again after the Opec-plus coalition eased its production cut quotas starting in May (OD Apr.1'21). Data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday showed that demand for all petroleum products had declined except for residual fuel oil, which seems to contradict the pervasive demand recovery narrative (related). The crude oil intake from US refiners remained roughly flat week-to-week, with crude runs at 15 million barrels per day and overall refinery utilization at 84%, or a mere 0.1 percentage point above last week’s rate. US crude inventories drew by a sizable 3.5 million b/d in the week ended Apr. 2 to 498.3 million barrels, but the decrease was partly offset by joint increases in both gasoline and distillate stockpiles. Getting Gas