Weekly US oil and product stockpiles drop sharply

US commercial oil and product stockpiles shrank sharply last week, amid a big drop in imports.

According to the Energy Information Administration, commercial crude oil inventories declined by 2.2m barrels over the week ending on 4 May, to reach 433.8m barrels.

That came alongside a 2.2m barrel drop in the country's gasoline inventories and a 3.8m barrel drawdown in those of distillates.

Net imports meanwhile declined by 955,000 b/d last week, with a 1.226m b/d drop in purchases from overseas to a rate of 7.3m b/d partially offset by a 271,000 b/d drop in the country's exports.

Yet domestic US oil ouput was higher again last week, according to the government, rising by 84,000 barrels a day to 10.703m b/d.

Refineries operated at 90.4% of their capacity last week.

By 1610 BST, front month Brent crude oil futures were rising 2.653% to $76.90 a barrel on the NYMEX.