West Texas Intermediate finished above the elusive $50 a barrel benchmark on Wednesday as oil prices were buoyed by a return to business following several weather-related disruptions, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
October West Texas Intermediate crude, which expired at the day’s settlement, rose 93 cents, or 1.9%, to settle at $50.41 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. November WTI crude ended at $50.69, up 79 cents, or 1.6%.
November Brent crude, the global benchmark, advanced $1.15, or 2.1%, to end trading at $56.29 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange, its highest finish since early March.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration revealed that domestic crude supplies climbed by 4.6 million barrels for the week ending September 15. That topped the forecast for a rise of 2.4 million barrels by analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts.
The EIA also said total domestic crude output rose by 157,000 barrels a day to 9.510 million barrels a day.
On Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute reported an increase of 1.4 million barrels.
Rounding out action on New York Mercantile Exchange, October natural gas settled at $3.094 per million British thermal units, down 2.8 cents, or 0.9%.
