The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for July delivery gained 79 cents, or 1.10 percent, to settle at 72.53 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for August delivery increased by 66 cents, or 0.87 percent, to settle at 76.95 U.S. dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
U.S. commercial crude oil inventories dipped 500,000 barrels in the week ending June 2 despite voluminous increase of net crude oil imports in the same period, according to data issued by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Still, U.S. gasoline and distillate fuel inventories increased by 2.7 million barrels and 5.1 million barrels in last week, respectively.
WTI oil settled above the level of 72 U.S. dollars per barrel as traders focused on falling crude inventories, noted Vladimir Zernov, analyst with market information supplier FX Empire.
The EIA inventory report was bullish overall as U.S. refineries' operation rate hit 95.8 percent last week, the highest level since August 2019, according to Phil Flynn, senior analyst at The PRICE Futures Group.
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