WTI gains over $2 per barrel

The price of crude oil was higher on Wednesday after new data on US inventories from the Energy Information Administration.

The EIA said that while crude oil stockpiles were down by 1.1 million barrels in the week ending July 20, gasoline inventories grew by 800,000 barrels during the week and distillates supplies were up by 1.5 million barrels.

While the drop in crude oil was about what analysts had been expecting, the growth in gasoline and distillates stockpiles were both greater than anticipated.

While refinery utilization grew to 91.7 percent during the week, about the level analysts said it would reach, much of the gain in gasoline inventories had to do with imports that were up by 3,000 barrels per day to an average of 10.38 million barrels per day over the past month.

Brent crude for September delivery was up 65 cents to $75.73 per barrel on the Intercontinental Exchange in London, while September contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were up $2.34 to $75.90 per barrel at close to 2:30 pm local time on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

At the same time, Nymex August gasoline had added 4 cents to $2.09 per gallon, while Nymex September heating oil had also risen 4 cents to trade at $2.08 per gallon and September natural gas was 12 cents higher to $6.07 per million British thermal units.