Crude oil and natural gas futures rallied on Thursday after the U.S. government reported the latest domestic storage data.
According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. crude oil inventories increased by 7.648 million barrels for the week ending Feb. 17, down from the previous week’s build of 16.283 million barrels. This was also higher than the market estimate of 2.083 million barrels and represented the ninth consecutive weekly jump in domestic stocks.
Gasoline supplies declined 1.856 million barrels, down from the 2.317-million-barrel increase last week. Heating oil stockpiles rose 597,000 barrels, while distillate inventories surged by 2.698 million barrels.
In a separate EIA storage report, national natural gas stocks fell 71 billion cubic feet, topping market estimates of negative 67 billion cubic feet. This was up from the 100-billion-cubic-foot drawdown in the previous week….