12.12.201909:21:00UTC+00Oil Prices Rise On Tariff Delay Hopes

Oil prices rose on Thursday as renewed hopes that fresh U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods may be delayed helped investors shrug off a surprise U.S. inventory build.

Benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.9 percent to $64.28 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 0.6 percent at $58.12 a barrel.

Speculation is rife that the Trump administration may delay additional tariffs on about $160 billion worth of Chinese goods slated for Sunday.

Data released by Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday showed that crude inventories in the U.S. rose by 822,000 barrels last week, compared with analysts' expectations for a 2.8 million-barrel drop.

The EIA said that crude stockpiles, at 447.9 million barrels, were about 4 percent higher than the five-year average for this time of the year.

Inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, fell by 3.4 million barrels last week, registering their biggest decline since February 2018, while inventories of gasoline jumped by 5.4 million barrels.

The American Petroleum Institute's report, released late Tuesday, showed U.S. crude supplies rose by 1.4 million barrels for the week ended December 6th to 447 million, while analysts were expecting a decrease of 2.8 million barrels.