Oil prices fell on Thursday in Asia but traded near three-month highs after the Energy Information Administration(EIA) showed in its weekly report that U.S. crude inventories had dropped.
U.S. WTI slipped 0.1% to $60.80 by 1:30 AM ET (05:30 GMT), while international brent also lost 0.1% to $66.14.
Oil inventories fell by 1.085 million barrels for the week ended Dec. 13, the EIA said. Analysts were looking for a drop of about 1.3 million barrels, according to the consensus.
“Refiners are back turning out products at full gusto and that’s causing steady buildups in gasoline and distillates, which don’t necessarily have runaway demand at this time of year,” analysts Barani Krishnan said.
“The rock-steady refining throughput at north of 90% of capacity and crude imports unwavering at above 6.5 million barrels is sustaining the overproduction in fuel,” Krishan added.
Oil prices are now set to record its third consecutive week of gains. Deeper output cuts by major producers and the phase one trade deal agreed between China and the U.S. were cited to be tailwind for the markets this month.
News that the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump received some attention today, but had little impact on markets as the decision was largely expected. Trump is the third president to be impeached in U.S. history but is likely to survive a trial in the GOP-led Senate.
