Investing.com - Crude prices held on to gains on Wednesday, staying close to their strongest level in around three years after data showed U.S. oil supplies fell more than forecast last week.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that crude oil inventories fell by 4.9 million barrels in the week ended Jan. 5. That compared with analysts' expectations for a decline of 3.9 million barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday reported a supply-drop of 11.2 million barrels.
Supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma, the key delivery point for Nymex crude, decreased by 2.4 million barrels last week, the EIA said.
Total U.S. crude oil inventories stood at 419.5 million barrels as of last week, which the EIA considered to be in the middle of the average range for this time of year.
U.S. crude oil production fell by 290,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 9.49 million bpd.
The report also showed that gasoline inventories increased by 4.1 million barrels, much higher than expectations for a gain of 2.6 million barrels. For distillate inventories including diesel, the EIA reported a rise of 4.3 million barrels.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures tacked on 32 cents, or about 0.5%, to $63.28 a barrel by 10:40AM ET (1540GMT). Prices were at around $63.34 prior to the release of the inventory data.
Meanwhile, Brent crude futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., were at $68.95 a barrel, up 11 cents from their last close. The contract rose to its best level since May 2015 earlier.
Oil prices continue to benefit from production cut efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia. The producers agreed in December to extend current oil output cuts until the end of 2018.
The deal to cut oil output by 1.8 million barrels a day (bpd) was adopted last winter by OPEC, Russia and nine other global producers. The agreement was due to end in March 2018, having already been extended once.
In other energy trading, gasoline futures lost 1.4 cents, or 0.8%, to $1.831 a gallon, while heating oil was unchanged at $2.070 a gallon.
Natural gas futures shed 2.2 cents, or 0.8%, to $2.899 per million British thermal units. Prices have gained around 5% so far this week as investors reacted to the severe winter storm hitting much of the U.S. Eastern Seaboard.