LONDON (Reuters) – Crude oil prices traded higher for a third straight day on lower-than-expected U.S. inventories and fears of an oversupply eased after the world's top producers cut production growth forecasts.
By 11 a.m. Italian Brent futures were up 60 cents at $79.19 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate was up 65 cents at $73.96 a barrel.
Data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) showed US crude inventories rose by 670,000 barrels in the week to February 2, well below the 1.9 million barrels expected by analysts polled by Reuters.
The US government's weekly oil inventory data will be released today at 4:30 PM ET.
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) yesterday cut its US oil production growth estimates by 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 170,000 bpd in 2024, significantly less than last year's 1.02 million output increase.
The EIA also predicts that U.S. production will not surpass the December 2023 record of 13.3 million barrels per day until February 2025.
In the long term, the International Energy Agency (IEA) expects India to be the main driver of global oil demand growth between 2023 and 2030, taking over from China as the number one importer.
(Translated by Enrico Ciacovelli, Editing by Gianluca Semeraro)
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