Oil prices were up by two percent on Wednesday, September 21, following an unexpectedly large fall in US crude oil inventories, and an oil strike, which took place in Norway and had the potential to cut oil output in the North Sea.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 rose by $0.90 (£0.69) to $46.78 (£35.98) per barrel by just before 10:00 am GMT, and West Texas Intermediate futures CLc1 were up $0.95 (£0.73) to $45 (£34.61) per barrel.
The oil price rise came about after the American Petroleum Institute released data showing a fall of 7.5m barrels in U.S. crude inventories, bringing the total amount of crude in the area down to 507.2m barrels. This represents nearly double the drop analysts had expected to see.
Speaking about the issue to Reuters Jasper Lawler, a strategist at CMC Markets said:
“Oil’s got its own pretty positive drivers at the moment. The API surprise draw overnight is obviously leading to the question of whether we are going to see the same in the official inventory today.”
Oil prices were also driven upwards by an oil service workers strike in Norway, which could reduce output from the largest crude-producing area in Western Europe.
Despite these figures being good news for everyone involved in crude sales, including Mobil – the makers of Mobil Delvac Super 1400 15W/40 – and oil producing countries around the globe, crude prices are still much lower than they have been in previous years.
