Oil Jumps 4% On Inventory Draw, Hurricane Outages

Oil prices surged on Wednesday, with Brent up over 3% and WTI up nearly 4% shortly after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported surprise draws in U.S. crude oil inventory and natural gas stocks. 

Also contributing to the surge in oil prices was a U.S. dollar giving up some of its recent gains and some 11% of output shuttered in the Gulf of Mexico as Hurricane Ian made its way toward the Florida coast. 

At 1:45 p.m. EST Wednesday, Brent crude was trading at $88.92 per barrel, up $2.65 (+3.07%) on the day, while WTI was trading at $81.57, up $3.07 (+3.91%) on the day. 

Oil’s Wednesday gains pare significant losses last week, when prices fell to their lowest levels since January in the aftermath of a global central bank interest rate hikes and fears of recession. 

Earlier on Wednesday, the EIA reported a crude oil inventory draw of 200,000 barrels for the week to September 23. The previous week has seen a 1.1-million-barrel build on inventories. The surprise draw Wednesday came after the American Petroleum Institute (API) had estimated a 4.15-million-barrel build for the week to September 23, catching the market off guard. 

In a Dallas Fed poll released on Wednesday, oil and gas executives tempered their year-end oil prices expectations, dropping them from an average of $107.93 last quarter to $88.74 per barrel in the latest survey. 

The most pessimistic executives estimate $65 per barrel, as they did last quarter, while the bulls have reduced their high-end price from $160 per barrel to $120 per barrel. 

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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