Light oil price trading near $80 as market awaits EIA data

US Light oil prices rose Wednesday, trading closer to the $80 mark after data from the American Petroleum Institute showed a larger than expected drawdown in US crude oil inventories.

On the NYMEX, light, sweet crude oil futures for delivery in December traded at $79.54 a barrel at 0553 GMT, up 40 cents in the Globex electronic session. NYMEX crude oil rose by around 50 cents in early Wednesday trade in Asia after the API reported a 4.367-million-barrel draw in crude stocks in the week ended Nov. 13 despite lower refinery runs at 79.6% of capacity.

Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected crude oil stocks to drop by 600,000 barrels. Oil prices are likely to rise “if we see the EIA data display a large draw in crude stockpiles like we see in the API data,” said Toby Hassall, head of research at CWA Global Markets.

The market is waiting for confirmation from the second set of data, due to be released by the Department of Energy at 10:30 a.m. EST. API’s data also showed a 963,000-barrel decline in gasoline inventories and a 507,000-barrel increase in distillate stocks, both contrary to expectations.

Crude oil, which has been moving against the US dollar, rose Tuesday despite a stronger greenback. “Perhaps traders are ignoring the short term strength in the dollar and are thinking about the longer-term trend,” Hassall said.

Tags:  EIA, light oil price, trading