Oil gaps up supported by US crude inventories

Oil prices rose after data show an unexpected decline in US inventories.

Commercial oil reserves in US in the week 24 - 30 September unexpectedly fell and gasoline inventories rose moderately, according to the US Department of Energy

Crude oil inventories fell by 3 million barrels to 499.7 million barrels. It's close to the highs for this time of year. The average forecast of analysts anticipated growth of 2.1 million barrels.

Oil reserves in the terminal Cushing (Oklahoma), from which the oil traded on NYMEX, rose by 569,000 barrels to 62.7 million barrels.

Gasoline stocks rose by 222,000 barrels to 227.4 million barrels. Analysts had expected gasoline supplies to increase by 100,000 barrels.

Distillate stocks fell 2.4 million barrels to 160.7 million barrels. This rate is still above the upper limit of the average range for this time of the year. Analysts expected distillate stocks to decline 900,000 barrels.

The utilization of refining capacity fell by 1.8 percentage points to 88.3%.

The cost of the November futures for US light crude oil WTI (Light Sweet Crude Oil) rose to 49.95 dollars per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

November futures price for North Sea petroleum mix of Brent crude rose to 52.09 dollars a barrel on the London Stock Exchange ICE Futures Europe.