Oil futures rose slightly Wednesday after government data showed a bigger-than-expected decline in U.S. crude inventories last week.
However, prices were below their highs for the day, as traders remained hesitant ahead of a press conference with U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, expected to offer hints on the U.S. recovery.
"Do I really want to commit before the Fed? Probably not," said Rich Ilczyszyn, market strategist at Lind-Waldock in New York. "If I'm a big trader, there's tons of risk."
Light, sweet crude for August delivery rose 41 cents, or 0.4%, to $94.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Front-month prices got a 77-cent boost overnight with the expiration of the cheaper July contract. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange rose $2.12, or 1.9%, to $113.07 a barrel.
Crude futures climbed after the Department of Energy said oil stockpiles fell 1.7 million barrels last week. The decline was greater than the 800,000-barrel drop forecast by analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires.
Gasoline stockpiles posted a surprise 500,000-barrel decline last week, the DOE's Energy Information Administration said. Inventories of distillates, including heating oil and diesel, rose 1.2 million barrels, while refinery utilization rose 3.1 percentage points, the highest level since last August.
Analysts expected gasoline supplies to increase 800,000 barrels, while stocks of distillates were seen climbing 500,000 barrels. Refinery runs were expected to rise 0.3 percentage points.
Meanwhile, EIA's indirect measure of product demand rose slightly. Taken together, the data painted an encouraging picture of U.S. oil and fuel use. On Tuesday, MasterCard Advisory's LLC said U.S. gasoline demand rose 0.5% to 9.347 million barrels a day in its latest SpendingPulse report, the strongest level since the Memorial Day holiday.
Concerns that the sputtering U.S. recovery has been hindering oil demand have kept traders on edge this month and helped send Nymex crude sliding below $100 a barrel.
However, market participants remain jittery about the pace of the recovery in the world's largest oil consumer. They will be searching for additional signals in the Federal Reserve's monetary policy statement due at 12:30 p.m. EDT.
In Europe, meanwhile, concerns about Greece's sovereign-debt crisis persisted despite a crucial vote of confidence won late Tuesday by the government of Prime Minister George Papandreou.
The debt-wracked country now faces a vote on additional austerity measures later this month as a condition for further rounds of aid from the European Union. The dollar remained stronger against the euro, which typically weighs on oil prices.
"Although the Greek debt situation has been pushed to the back burner for now, it will remain as a latent bearish consideration," said Jim Ritterbusch, head of the oil trading advisory firm Ritterbusch and Associates.
Front-month July reformulated gasoline blendstock, or RBOB, recently gained 7.33 cents, or 2.5%, to $2.9559 a gallon. July heating oil gained 4.77 cents, or 1.7%, to $2.9377 a gallon.
However, prices were below their highs for the day, as traders remained hesitant ahead of a press conference with U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, expected to offer hints on the U.S. recovery.
"Do I really want to commit before the Fed? Probably not," said Rich Ilczyszyn, market strategist at Lind-Waldock in New York. "If I'm a big trader, there's tons of risk."
Light, sweet crude for August delivery rose 41 cents, or 0.4%, to $94.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Front-month prices got a 77-cent boost overnight with the expiration of the cheaper July contract. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange rose $2.12, or 1.9%, to $113.07 a barrel.
Crude futures climbed after the Department of Energy said oil stockpiles fell 1.7 million barrels last week. The decline was greater than the 800,000-barrel drop forecast by analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires.
Gasoline stockpiles posted a surprise 500,000-barrel decline last week, the DOE's Energy Information Administration said. Inventories of distillates, including heating oil and diesel, rose 1.2 million barrels, while refinery utilization rose 3.1 percentage points, the highest level since last August.
Analysts expected gasoline supplies to increase 800,000 barrels, while stocks of distillates were seen climbing 500,000 barrels. Refinery runs were expected to rise 0.3 percentage points.
Meanwhile, EIA's indirect measure of product demand rose slightly. Taken together, the data painted an encouraging picture of U.S. oil and fuel use. On Tuesday, MasterCard Advisory's LLC said U.S. gasoline demand rose 0.5% to 9.347 million barrels a day in its latest SpendingPulse report, the strongest level since the Memorial Day holiday.
Concerns that the sputtering U.S. recovery has been hindering oil demand have kept traders on edge this month and helped send Nymex crude sliding below $100 a barrel.
However, market participants remain jittery about the pace of the recovery in the world's largest oil consumer. They will be searching for additional signals in the Federal Reserve's monetary policy statement due at 12:30 p.m. EDT.
In Europe, meanwhile, concerns about Greece's sovereign-debt crisis persisted despite a crucial vote of confidence won late Tuesday by the government of Prime Minister George Papandreou.
The debt-wracked country now faces a vote on additional austerity measures later this month as a condition for further rounds of aid from the European Union. The dollar remained stronger against the euro, which typically weighs on oil prices.
"Although the Greek debt situation has been pushed to the back burner for now, it will remain as a latent bearish consideration," said Jim Ritterbusch, head of the oil trading advisory firm Ritterbusch and Associates.
Front-month July reformulated gasoline blendstock, or RBOB, recently gained 7.33 cents, or 2.5%, to $2.9559 a gallon. July heating oil gained 4.77 cents, or 1.7%, to $2.9377 a gallon.
