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Crude oil prices are paring early gains and drifting lower Thursday morning, after having surged higher on data showing a drop in crude inventories in the U.S.
Traders, weighing energy demand prospects and the supply situation in the market, appear to be taking some profits, cashing in recent gains.
West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November are down $0.55 or 0.76% at $71.68 a barrel, coming off a high of 72.54 a barrel touched in the Asian session.
Brent crude futures are down $0.37 or 0.5% at $75.82 a barrel.
Oil prices rose sharply on Wednesday after data from U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed crude stockpiles dropped by 3.481 million barrels to 414 million barrels last week, the lowest level since October 2018.
Gasoline stockpiles rose by 3.47 million barrels, more than 2.5 times the expected increase, while distillate stockpiles dropped by 2.55 million barrels, more than twice the expected drop.
The EIA also said that oil facilities in the Gulf of Mexico continue to return to production, and weekly output rose by 500,000 barrels per day in the most recent week.
