Crude oil prices advanced on Wednesday

International benchmarks for oil prices jumped on Wednesday (6 April) after data from the US Department of Energy showed an unexpected drop in commercial inventoried crude by 4.9 million barrels for the week ending 1 April. According to WSJ, this is due to a decline in import and an increase in refinery utilisation rate, suggesting that the maintenance season might be finishing earlier than usual. Another bullish sign for the market is that US crude production also fell last week; however, gasoline inventories on the other hand rose by 1.4 million barrels. Traders believed that refineries are ramping up production to meet gasoline demand this summer. Analysts warned that this is rather a knee-jerk reaction to several bullish headlines and might not make a trend as oil inventories around the world stand near record high.

WTI closed at   $37.75/b (+$1.86) for May delivery
Brent closed at $39.84/b (+$1.97) for June delivery

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