Oil Rises After a Drop in US Crude Stocks, Eyes on OPEC

Crude oil prices rose on Wednesday after a sharp drop in US crude inventories as markets eyeing OPEC meeting later in the day on the future level of production cuts.

Brent crude futures rose 19 cents, or 0.4%, to $ 43.09 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures rose 17 cents, or 0.4%, to $ 40.46 a barrel.

Fuel demand had recovered slightly after the sharp drop due to Covid-19 pandemic, U.S. crude inventories fell 8.3M barrels for the week ending July 10, exceeding analyst expectations of 2.1M barrels, according to data from the API

Major members of OPEC and its allies including Russia, OPEC +, are scheduled at their meeting to decide whether to extend the production cut of 9.7M bpd or reduce it to 7.7M bpd . OPEC and its allies have complied with 107% of the agreed cuts, Reuters Cited OPEC + source.

The market is awaiting official figures from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) later on Wednesday.