Brent Crude Up, WTI Down as Oil Futures Yield Mixed Results on Thursday

Crude oil prices finished with mixed results on Thursday, as light, sweet, crude continued to fall while Brent crude moved higher, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, May West Texas Intermediate crude fell 17 cents, or 0.3%, to settle at $50.27 a barrel.

The May futures contract expired at the session’s end. The new front-month contract, June WTI, ended at $50.71 a barrel, down 14 cents, or 0.3%.

On Wednesday, WTI oil prices tumbled by 3.8% on the New York Mercantile Exchange, marking the steepest drop since March 8. The decline was mainly due to the surprise build in domestic gasoline stockpiles that point to weaker-than-expected demand at a time when consumption usually rises for gasoline.

On London’s ICE Futures Exchange, June Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose 6 cents, or 0.1%, to end trading at $52.99 a barrel.

Prices for natural gas fell as the EIA reported a larger-than-expected weekly climb in U.S. supplies. On Thursday, the government agency said that domestic supplies of natural gas rose by 54 billion cubic feet for the week ending April 14. Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts expected an increase between 47 billion and 51 billion cubic feet.

May natural gas lost 2.6 cents, or 0.8%, to settle at $3.159 per million British thermal units.