Oil Prices Rise As U.S. Supplies Tighten, Brent Tops $76

Oil prices rose on Thursday (Friday, July 30, 2021, in Manila), with global benchmark Brent topping $76 a barrel, as supplies in the United States tightened further after shrinking to the smallest levels since January 2020, Jessica Resnick-Ault reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: A crude oil tanker unloads crude oil into storage tanks

Brent crude oil futures settled up $1.31 a barrel, or 1.75% at $76.05 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures settled up $1.23, or 1.7% at $73.62 a barrel. Data from information provider Genscape indicated that the inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma storage hub have continued to draw, traders said on Thursday.

Cushing stockpiles were seen at 36.299 million barrels by Tuesday afternoon, down 360,917 barrels from July 23.

The Cushing inventory data came a day after the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that domestic crude inventories fell by 4.1 million barrels in the week to July 23.

Cushing, the delivery point for the benchmark US oil futures contract, has had seven consecutive stockpile draws. "Crude oil is still running off of a sugar high off of yesterday's U.S. inventory numbers," said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York.

The market got an additional boost from a weaker US dollar and signals from Iran that no nuclear deal was imminent, Yawger said.

In June, Brent topped $75 a barrel for the first time in more than two years and then slumped early this month on fears about the rapid spread of the Delta variant of coronavirus and a compromise deal by leading oil producers to increase supply.

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