Oil rises after sharp drop in US inventories

Oil prices continued to rise as the US market opened on Thursday, and resumed their rally after taking a pause yesterday due to profit-taking from multi-year highs.

US crude rose 0.8% to $72.22 a barrel, after opening at $71.67, and hit a low at $71.36, and Brent crude rose 0.9% to $74.44 a barrel, after opening at $73.78, and hit a low at $73.58.

The US crude lost 1.1% yesterday, on profit taking from a 3-yar high at $72.96, and Brent crude fell 0.5% after hitting the highest since April 2019 at $74.94.

Oil prices fell on Wednesday due to profit-taking and the US dollar's broad rally against a basket of currencies, after the Federal Reserve released positive projections.

The Energy Information Administration reported yesterday that the US crude inventories fell 7.4 million barrels during the past week, while analysts forecasts a drop by 2.1 million barrels.

The total commercial inventories fell to the lowest level since the week ending on February 19 at 466.6 million barrels, in a positive sign of the US demand levels.

While the US output rose by 200K barrels per day last week, with the total at the highest level since May 2020 at 11.2 million barrels per day.