— Carsten Fritsch, Commerzbank AG
Crude oil inventories in the United States dropped less than expected last week, a weekly report showed on Wednesday. The Energy Information Administration reported US crude stockpiles fell 1.8M barrels in the week ending May 12, following the preceding week's drop of 5.2M barrels and falling behind expectations for a 2.5M-barrel decline. US production fell 9K barrels per day to 9.305M barrels per day, the first drop in 13 weeks. Nevertheless, the production levels remained below the EIA's 2017 production target of 9.31M barrels per day. Wednesday's report also showed that US crude imports climbed 577K barrels per day last week, whereas exports advanced 400K barrels per day. Total US inventories decreased 3% to 520.8M barrels last week. The data suggested that the OPEC production cut deal started bearing fruit at last. Thus, oil prices jumped shortly after the release, with Brent futures hitting $52.45 per barrel and WTI futures climbing to $49.50 per barrel. In the meantime, gasoline inventories declined 413K barrels during the same week, while analysts held forests for a 731K-berrel plunge.
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