Oil Prices Rise To Highest Since February on Inventory Draw – 12 January, 2021

A larger than expected inventory draw helped oil prices rise over 1%, with the ongoing uptick of COVID-19 cases seemingly having little effect on the commodity. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude gained 1.3% or 67 cents to $53.88 per barrel, having gained almost 2% the previous session. Brent crude was 1.4% or 79 cents higher at $57.37, gaining as much as 1.7% the previous session. Despite rising death rates in Europe and The United States, both benchmarks are trading their highest since February when the virus had yet to develop in the global scale. U.S. supplies fell by 5.8 million barrels last week to 484.5 million barrels, more than analysis expectation of a 2.3 million barrel drop.