Oil futures pulled back from session highs above $62 a barrel on Wednesday, but the U.S. benchmark still marked a high for the year after government data showed that crude inventories fell unexpectedly, for the first time in 17 weeks.
June crude climbed by 53 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $60.93 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It climbed to highs above $62 before and shortly after the supply data, but prices settled below the session highs following a 25% climb in April.
Given recent gains, it’s “inevitable to see some profit-taking at this point, and some may doubt prices could continue to increase at a similar pace,” said Richard Hastings, macro strategist at Global Hunter Securities. The “market is trying to figure out how much is U.S. dollar driven, and how much is oil fundamentals.”
June Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange also rose 25 cents, or 0.4%, at $67.77 a barrel.
Early Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that crude inventories fell 3.9 million barrels for the week ended May 1.
Analysts polled by Platts forecast a crude-stock climb of one million barrels. The EIA hasn’t reported a fall in crude supplies since the report covering the week ended Jan. 2. The American Petroleum Institute data Tuesday showed a 1.5 million-barrel fall.
The market has been waiting for data to show a decline following 21 weeks of dropping numbers of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil.
But part of the reason for the crude-stockpile decline was the 5.9% rise in gasoline production from the same time last year, on a four-week moving average basis, said Jay Hatfield, AMZA portfolio manager and president of Infrastructure Capital Advisors.
Year over year, domestic demand for gasoline rose 3.9%, he said, with the increase in demand “a lagged behind response to the dramatic decline in oil prices since last September.”
Gasoline supplies were up 400,000 barrels, while distillate stockpiles added 1.5 million barrels last week, according to the EIA.
he sharp decline in crude inventories “comes on the back of a reported oil port closing in Libya,” said Tim Evans, chief market strategist at Long Leaf Trading Group.
“We also have a rapidly falling U.S. dollar following the release of the disappointing ADP number,” he said. “The fundamentals and macroeconomic picture are supporting a continued push higher, leaving $60 as key support from here” for Nymex oil.