Oil prices steadied on Thursday following two straight days of gains that took oil futures to highs not seen in a year, after weekly U.S. crude stocks fell sharply while fuel inventories rose more than expected.
Brent futures settled at $71.31 a barrel, down 4 cents after touching its highest since May 2019 earlier in the session. U.S. crude settled at $68.81 a barrel, losing 2 cents.
WTI prices rose as high as $69.40, the strongest since October 2018, after gaining 1.5% in the previous session. U.S. crude inventories dropped by 5.1 million barrels last week, compared with expectations for a decrease of 2.4 million barrels, while gasoline stocks grew by 1.5 million barrels and distillate stockpiles jumped by 3.7 million barrels.
“They burned through a lot of crude oil though, and we had builds in gasoline and distillate,” Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York. “You don’t want to be burning that much crude and then the customers don’t want it.”
