Oil erases losses, turns up following US inventories data

Oil prices saw a mixed performance on Wednesday, but wiped out the earlier losses and turned upwards after the release of a less-than-expected build in the US crude inventories data.

The US Energy Information Administration reported that the oil inventories rose 1.6 million barrels during the past week, beating estimates of 2.5 million barrels.

While the American Petroleum Institute (API) showed yesterday in preliminary data that inventories fell by 1.25 million barrels during the same period.

The dollar index fell 0.7% to trade at 101.3 points as of 17:08 GMT, after hitting a high of 101.9 and a low of 101.1.

As of 17:02 GMT, WTI crude rose by 1.5% to $24.3 a barrel, with an intraday high of $25.2 and a low of $22.9.

Brent rose 0.1% to $27.1 a barrel, after it hit a high of $28.2 and a low of $25.6.