Oil rebounds after inventories report

Oil prices rebounded from Wednesday’s losses. March contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were up 24 cents to $62.79 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange after a drop of 54 cents on Wednesday. Meanwhile, in late morning trade in London Brent March contracts on the International Petroleum Exchange had gained 45 cents to $61.51 per barrel, after having lost 50 cents in Wednesday’s session.

The gains came after Wednesday’s weekly inventories report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which showed that crude oil and heading oil stockpiles had fallen from last week but that gasoline supplies had surged. The rise in gasoline inventories was more than had been expected, but crude oil and heating oil supplies had been expected to grow as well.

Gasoline supplies climbed by 4.3 million barrels, although they had only been expected to grow by 1.9 million barrels. Crude oil stocks dropped by 300,000 barrels when they had been expected to increase by that amount, and heating oil stockpiles dropped by 300,000 barrels as well, despite the fact that they had been expected to expand by 200,000 barrels.