US crude climbs more than 2% ahead of EIA weekly report

The US crude continued to rise as the US market opened on Wednesday, rising more than 2%, to extend gains for the second straight day and hit a 1-week high, after the American Petroleum Institute showed in preliminary data a sharp decline in the crude inventories, and ahead of the Energy Information Administration's weekly report.

US crude (WTI) rose 2.6% to $39.39 a barrel, after opening at $38.39, and hit a session-low of $38.38. 

US crude gained 2.9% yesterday, after strong data on China's industrial production. 

The American Petroleum Institute (API) revealed yesterday in preliminary data that the US crude inventories fell by about 9.4 million barrels in the week ending September 11, the seventh weekly drop in the last 2 months, beating expectations of a rise by 1.6 million barrels.

The total inventories fell to 496.6 million barrels, the lowest level since the week ending April 10, which is a positive sign on demand and consumption levels in the US.

While the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) will release today the official data on inventories and production levels in its weekly report, with forecasts for inventories to rise 2.1 million barrels.

As for the US production, it fell 300,000 barrels during the past week, to a total of 10.0 million barrels per day, with production resuming after a wave of hurricanes and storms hit the Gulf of Mexico and led to the suspension of 1.1 million bpd.