The West Texas Intermediate for February delivery lost 52 cents, or 0.6 percent, to settle at 82.12 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for March delivery decreased 20 cents, or 0.2 percent, to close at 84.47 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Wednesday that the nation's crude oil inventories decreased by 4.6 million barrels during the week ending Jan. 7. Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts had forecast a decline of 1.6 million barrels in U.S. crude supplies.
The EIA also reported a larger-than-expected rise in total motor gasoline inventories of 8 million barrels and a 2.5 million-barrel increase in distillate fuel inventories.
The U.S. crude benchmark jumped 5.6 percent over Tuesday and Wednesday, while Brent advanced 4.7 percent over the same period, as traders bet that the spread of the Omicron variant won't derail global demand.
Latest comments