Oil Prices Rise as US Supplies Fall

New York (PNA/Xinhua) — Oil prices gained Wednesday as government data showed that U.S. inventories dropped last week.

U.S. crude supplies of last week decreased 1.29 million barrels to 470.6 million, said Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday in its weekly report.

Inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for the U.S. contract lost 820,000 barrels to 58 million barrels. U.S. crude production rose 24,000 barrels to 9.61 million barrels a day (b/d) that week.

Total U.S. crude oil production averaged an estimated 9.6 million b/d in May, said EIA in its monthly short-term energy outlook report Tuesday. It projected U.S. crude oil production averages 9.4 million b/d in 2015 and 9.3 million b/d in 2016.

EIA forecasts Brent crude oil prices will average USD61 in 2015 and USD67 in 2016, and U.S. crude prices in both 2015 and 2016 are expected to average USD5 less than the Brent price.

Light, sweet crude for July delivery moved up USD1.29 to settle at USD61.43 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for July delivery increased 82 cents to close at USD65.7 a barrel. (PNA/Xinhua) FFC/EBP