The price of Brent futures increased yesterday by $1.47, or 2.0 per cent, to trade at $73.73 a barrel by 11:59 a.m. (1559 GMT) while the United States West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $1.63, or 2.45 per cent, to trade at $69.33 per barrel.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is the pricing benchmark in the United States of America (USA) while Brent is the pricing standard for crude oil in the United Kingdom (UK). Reuters reporters that the oil prices rose about two per cent as the second straight weekly draw from U.S. crude stockpiles was bigger than expected, which offset worries that further interest rate hikes could slow economic growth and reduce global oil demand.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said crude inventories dropped by 9.6 million barrels in the week ended June 23, far exceeding the 1.8-million barrel draw analysts forecast in a Reuters poll and also much bigger than the 2.8 million bar- rel draw a year earlier.
It added that it also exceeded the average draw in the five years from 2018-2022. An analyst at Price Futures Group, Phil Flynn, said: “Overall, very solid numbers that kind of fly in the face of people who have been saying that the market is oversupplied.
This report could be a bottom (for oil prices).” Reuters noted that investors remained cautious that interest rate hikes could slow economic growth and reduce oil demand.