Crude oil futures rise; API reports further draw on supplies

by The Associated Press

Crude oil futures rose Aug. 8 on the New York Mercantile Exchange after declining roughly 4 percent Aug. 7, as traders awaited stockpile data from a weekly industry report.

September crude rose 21 cents to $29.12 per barrel, and could likely surge higher as data from the American Petroleum Institute released after regular trading showed inventory draws for crude oil, gasoline and distillate stocks.

Analysts had been expecting crude stockpiles to be boosted by as much as 3 million barrels, but instead the API figures revealed an unexpected draw of 2.144 million barrels, bringing the total to about 282 million barrels for the week ended Aug. 4.

Last week, the API reported that U.S. crude oil supplies plummeted by 9 million barrels, to 284 million barrels from 293 million the previous week — a sign that output increases from Saudi Arabia and other OPEC nations were not having the intended effect.

September heating oil rose 1.62 cent to 79.83 cents per gallon and September gasoline rose 1.48 cent to 86.28 cents per gallon.

Aug. 8 API data indicated a draw of 1.179 million barrels of distillate fuels, which include heating oil, and a moderate draw of 1.670 million barrels of gasoline.

Among other energy products, September natural gas rose 6.1 cents to $4.409 per 1,000 cubic feet and September Brent crude rose 38 cents to $28.90 per barrel.

Crude fell nearly 4 percent Aug. 7 after climbing above $30 a barrel at the end of last week.