Oil pulls back from 3-year peak on profit-taking

Oil prices turned lower as the US market opened on Thursday, pulling back from a 3-year high on profit-taking, but today's loss remain limited due to a sharp drop in the US crude inventories.

US crude fell 0.8% to $72.64, after opening at $73.25, and hit a low at $73.58, and Brent crude fell 0.6% to $74.80 a barrel, after opening at $75.27, and hit a low at $75.76.

US crude gained 0.25% yesterday, in the fourth straight daily gain, after hitting a 3-year high of $74.22, and Brent crude rose 0.5% after it hit the highest since October 2018 at $76.00.

The Energy Information Administration reported yesterday that the US crude inventories fell 7.6 million barrels during the past week, while analysts forecasts a drop by 3.6 million barrels.

The total commercial inventories fell to the lowest level since the week ending on March 20, 2020 at 459 million barrels.

While the US output rose 100K barrels last week, with the total at 11.1 million barrels per day.