Oil climbs 4% despite rise in US inventories

OIL prices rose more than 4 percent on Wednesday, extending gains from the previous session as improved risk appetite provided support despite data showing an unexpected rise in S oil inventories.

Brent crude futures rose $2.93, or 4.2 percent, to $72.28 a barrel on Wednesday. S West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose $3.16, or 4.7 percent, to $70.36 a barrel, a 4.7 percent gain.

Futures are rebounding after dropping around 7 percent on Monday, following a deal by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, together known as OPEC , to boost supply by 400,000 barrels per day from August through December.

The sell-off was exacerbated by fears that a rise in cases of the Delta variant of the coronavirus in major markets like the nited States, Britain and apan would affect demand.

The price gains on Wednesday also come despite a rise in S crude stockpiles for the first time since May. Crude inventories rose unexpectedly by 2.1 million barrels last week to 439.7 million barrels, S Energy Information Administration data showed. Analysts had expected a 4.5 million-barrel drop.

Still, gasoline and distillate inventories posted draws of 121,000 barrels and 1.3 million barrels, respectively.

“That crude oil build was obviously a surprise driven by a surge in imports and a plunge in exports,” said ohn Kilduff, partner at Again Capital in ew York.

PMorgan analysts said global demand is expected to average 99.6 million barrels per day in August, up by 5.4 mbd from April.