WTI, Brent in steep gains

Crude oil prices were up sharply Wednesday as investors looked to commodities as a safe place to put their money amid continuing meltdowns in the financial sector and as the US Energy Information Administration’s weekly US inventories report showed crude oil, gasoline and distillates stockpiles all lower last week.

October contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude added $6 to $97.15 per barrel after two days of steep declines, while Brent crude was up $5.19 to $94.41 per barrel following 14 consecutive sessions of downward movement.

The gains might have been more but the EIA also reported that demand for fuel in the United States was down 4.4 percent in the past four weeks over the same period last year and investors were worried that demand could fall even further.

The EIA said that US crude oil inventories were down by 6.3 million barrels in the week ending 12 September, almost double the decline that had been anticipated, while gasoline stockpiles fell 3.3 million barrels and distillates in storage dropped 900,000 barrels.