On Wednesday, crude prices inched up after some worries about China’s weakened economy seen as possibly hitting demand from the world’s largest crude importer were offset by a bigger than expected US crude stock draw.
Brent crude futures were 13 cents, or 0.17% higher, at $77.33 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures stayed the same at $73.17 per barrel.
On Monday last week, Brent peaked above $82 but had shed 6.2% by the close on Tuesday, closing at a 2-week low of $77.20. WTI declined 7.5% during the same period.
On Wednesday, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said U.S. distillate, gasoline, and crude inventories declined in the week that ended on August 16.
The EIA said crude inventories dropped by 4.6M barrels to 426M barrels in the week that ended on August 16, versus analysts’ expectations for a 2.7M barrel draw.
Investors are still worried over the possibility of Chinese economic weakness weighing on crude demand.
China’s economic battles have contributed to low fuel demand and weak processing margins that has hampered operations at independent and state-run refineries.
Matador Economics’ chief economist, Tim Snyder, they were measuring everything by the Chinese economy and any negative leaning out of China would pressure energy.
