Oil prices up on US demand hopes
Friday, 18 July 2014
SINGAPORE, July 17 (AFP): Oil prices extended gains in Asia Thursday after a bullish US stockpiles report raised hopes of resurgent demand in the world's top crude consumer, analysts said.
US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for August delivery rose 24 cents to $101.44 while Brent crude for September gained two cents to $107.19 in afternoon trade.
WTI surged $1.25 in New York Wednesday after the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said reserves fell 7.5 million barrels in the week to July 11.
The drop outstripped analysts' expectations of a 2.6 million barrel decline.
"The strong, better-than-expected US stockpiles data is giving significant help to oil prices at the moment," David Lennox, resource analyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney, told AFP.