© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The Bryan Mound Strategic Petroleum Reservoir is seen in an aerial photo over Freeport, Texas.
TOKYO (Reuters) – Oil prices rose on Wednesday, advancing for a seventh day, after an industry report showed a new drop in inventories and investors ignored the worsening pandemic. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was up 40 cents, or 0.8%, at $ 53.61 a barrel at 0128 GMT after gaining nearly 2% on Tuesday. it was up 47 cents, or 0.8%, to $ 57.05, having risen 1.7% in the prior session. Both benchmarks are trading at the highest level since February, before the coronavirus outbreak in China began to spread around the world and billions of people went into lockdown to prevent a pandemic now in a second wave. more lethal. Prices are ignoring the latest developments in Europe and the United States, where the death toll and new infections continue to rise, with the focus on launching vaccines, albeit spotty, but risks to the market persist. “The response of US shale producers to the oil rally represents the most significant short-term oil supply risk,” said Stephen Innes, Axi’s chief global market strategist. Falling inventories and rising oil prices are likely to tempt US drillers back into the fray, especially as Saudi Arabia and other major producers cut production, effectively ceding market share to US producers. Crude inventories in the United States fell by 5.8 million barrels last week to about 484.5 million barrels, data from the American Petroleum Institute showed Tuesday night.[API/S] That was more than analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll of a 2.3 million barrel drop.
