Title: Oil prices edge higher as Delta variant spread caps gains

Aug 04, 2021 04:31AM ET

By: AnalysisWatch

Oil costs edged higher on Wednesday, upheld by a fall in U.S. inventories and Mideast international pressures, yet the expanding spread of the Covid Delta variation in top devouring nations covered increases.

Brent unrefined petroleum fates were up 33 pennies, or 0.5%, to $72.74 a barrel by 0815 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) unrefined rose 16 pennies, or 0.2%, to $70.72 a barrel.

U.S. unrefined inventories fell by 879,000 barrels for the week finished July 30, as per two market sources, refering to American Petroleum Institute figures.

Gas inventories fell by 5.8 million barrels and distillate stocks fell by 717,000 barrels, the information showed, as per the sources, who talked on state of secrecy.

The United States and China, the world's two greatest oil customers, are wrestling with quickly spreading flare-ups of the exceptionally infectious Delta variation that experts dread will restrict fuel interest when it customarily ascends in the two nations.

In China, the spread of the variation from the coast to inland urban areas has provoked specialists to force severe measures to manage the episode.