Oil retreats temporarily from 13-month peak

Oil prices fell on Thursday, after rising earlier due to profit-taking from a 13-month high, but today's losses are ebbed after a drop in the US crude inventories according to the American Petroleum Institute's preliminary data and fears over the US supply amid the cold weather conditions in that suspended most of Texas' supply.

US crude fell 0.6% to $61.30, after opening at $61.66, and hit a day high and the highest since January 2020 at $62.25, and Brent crude fell more than 0.5% to $64.51, after opening at $64.88, and hit a day high and the highest since January 2020 at $65.49.

US crude rose 2.6% yesterday, while Brent crude futures rose 2.3%, posting their fourth straight daily gain.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) revealed yesterday in preliminary data that the US crude inventories fell by about 5.8 million barrels during the week ending February 12, beating forecasts of a drop by 3.4 million barrels.

The total commercial inventories fell to 473.4 million barrels, the lowest level since the week ending March 27, 2020, which is considered a positive sign of the US domestic demand.

While the US Energy Information Administration's official data will be released later today, amid forecasts for inventories to fall by 2.1 million barrels.

A deep freeze in the US forced at least 5 oil refineries in Texas to suspend production and halted the production of about 1 million oil barrels per day.