WTI Rises, Moves Closer to $50 a Barrel Benchmark on Wednesday

Oil prices climbed on Wednesday after the EIA reported favorable data on declining U.S. crude inventories, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.

June West Texas Intermediate crude tacked on 41 cents, or 0.8%, to settle at $49.07 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

July Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose 56 cents, or 1.1%, to a three-week settlement high of $52.21 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Exchange.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that domestic crude supplies fell by 1.8 million barrels for the week ending May 12, marking the sixth weekly drop in a row reported by the EIA.

Late Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute revealed an 882,000-barrel climb. Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts forecast a fall of 2.2 million barrels.

Back on the New York Mercantile Exchange, June natural gas fell by 1.2% to $3.192 per million British thermal units, ahead of an EIA supply update due Thursday. Analysts forecast a 61 billion-cubic-foot weekly rise, according to an S&P Global Platts survey.