SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Crude prices edged up on Thursday, after U.S. distillate inventories posted a large drawdown and refiners ramped up activity to the highest in over a year.
Brent crude futures gained 41 cents to settle at $67.68 a barrel at 0628 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 34 cents to $64.20 per barrel.
U.S. crude inventories rose by 90,000 barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said, according to Reuters.
Reuters reported that distillate stockpiles, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, fell by 3.3 million barrels in the week, and refining rates rose to 85.4% of capacity, their highest since March 2020.
“Between planting season and online truck deliveries, you have a nice number in the diesel,” director of energy futures at Mizuho Bob Yawger told Reuters.
“Planting season is doing wonders for the distillate market,” he said.
OPEC, Russia and their allies, a group known as OPEC+, forecast global oil demand in 2021 would grow by 6 million barrels per day, after demand plunged by 9.5 million bpd last year amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report released by the group’s experts earlier in the week.
