US crude rises ahead of EIA weekly report

US crude continued to rise as the US market opened on Wednesday, resuming gains after pausing yesterday, thanks to a sharp drop in US oil inventories, according to the American Petroleum Institute's preliminary data, and ahead of the EIA official data later today.

US crude rose 1.0% to $41.54, after opening at $41.13, and hit an intraday low of $40.95.

The US crude lost 1.3% yesterday, and posted the first loss in the last three days, due to fears over the trade relations between the US and China.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) revealed yesterday in preliminary data the US crude inventories fell 8.8 million barrels during the week ending July 24, beating forecasts of a rise by 0.4 million barrels.

The total inventories fell to 531 million barrels, 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 1 million barrels.

As for the US production, it rose 100,000 barrels to 11.1 million barrels per day during the past week, with expectations to continue rising for the second straight week.