Brent jumps after DoE reports 12.8m barrel drop in weekly US oil inventories

US crude oil inventories shrank at an accelerated pace last week amid a sharp drop in net imports and higher demand from refineries.

According to the Energy Information Administration, the Department of Energy's statistical arm, commercial crude oil inventories shrank by 12.8m barrels during the week ending on 21 June to reach 469.6m barrels.

Although they remained approximately 5.0% above their five-year average for that time of year, the reported drop was far larger than the 2.54m decline that analysts had penciled-in.

Gasoline stockpiles meanwhile fell by 1.0m barrels during the week, alongside an increase in the rate of use of refineries' operating capacity to 94.2%.

Inventories of distillates also shrank, by 2.4m barrels.

Net imports, which measures the rate of change in purchases from overseas plus exports, fell by 1.16m barrels a day to reach 2.886m b/d, the DoE said.

Domestic oil output also declined, by 100,000 b/d to 12.1m b/d.

In an initial reaction, as of 1536 BST front month Brent crude oil futures were climbing by 2.4% to $66.64 a barrel on the ICE.