2021.09.0119:12:00UTC+00Oil Futures Settle Slightly Higher

Crude oil futures settled marginally up on Wednesday after data showed a drop in U.S. crude inventories in the week ended August 28.

Traders also noted that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, collectively known as OPEC+, decided in a meeting today to stick to their earlier plan of boosting oil production by 400,000 barrels per day each month through December.

West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended up by $0.09 or about 0.1% at $68.59 a barrel.

Brent crude futures were down $0.16 or 0.22% at $71.47 a barrel a little while ago.

Data released by Energy Information Administration (EIA) this morning showed U.S. oil stockpiles dropped by 7.169 million barrels last week, more than twice the expected drop of abour 3.1 million barrels.

Distillate stockpiles dropped by 1.732 million barrels last week, while gasoline inventories increased by 1.29 million barrels.

A report from the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday showed crude inventories dropped by 4.045 million barrels last week, as against expectations for a 2.833 million decline.

The API report also showed distiallate inventories declined 1.96 million barrels last week, while gasoline stockpiles saw an increase of 2.71 million barrrels.

On Tuesday, OPEC revised the demand growth forecast for 2022 to 4.2 million barrels per day, up from a previous estimate of 3.28 million barrels per day. The data indicates the group might consider raising crude output in the foresseable future.