US oil futures jump after weekly inventory data

Energy futures jumped after a report on US crude and oil-product stockpiles revealed a large drop in the latter.

Commercial crude oil stocks in the US rose by 1.4m barrels over the week ending on 29 July, to reach 522.5m barrels, the Energy Information Administration, the US Department of Energy´s statiscal arm said in a report.

However, motor gasoline inventories were depleted by 3.3m barrels while those for distillate fuels increased by 1.2m barrels.

Imports increased by 301,000 barrels a day during the reference week.

Refineries were operating at 93.3% of their operable capacity last week.

As of 16:37 BST front month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures 2.082% higher to $40.35 per barrel on the ICE, alongside a gain of 1.901% to $42.61 per barrel for Brent.

In parallel, natural gas futures on NYMEX were advancing by 3.99% to $2.84/MMBtu and those for RBOB gasoline were rising 1.68% to trade at $1.3336 per gallon.