Oil prices rise more than 2%

Shafaq News / Oil prices rose today, Wednesday, to more than 2%, after a drop in US oil and gasoline inventories last week.

Data from the American Petroleum Institute showed that stocks of both crude oil and gasoline in the United States recorded a larger-than-expected drop last week, while distillate stocks rose.

Crude inventories fell by 4.5 million barrels in the week ending on August 21 to about 507.5 million barrels, while analysts had expected a decrease of 3.7 million barrels.

The institute data showed that gasoline stocks also fell to 6.4 million barrels, while analysts had expected a decrease of 1.5 million barrels.

At 5:00 a.m. GMT, Brent crude increased by 0.26% to reach $ 46.41, an increase of more than 2% from yesterday's Tuesday, while US crude rose $ 43.38.

Helped by the rise in crude oil prices was the halting of most US oil production in the Gulf of Mexico just before the expected hurricane.

The US Department of the Interior said that oil producers stopped pumping 1.56 million barrels per day, or 84% of daily production, from US offshore platforms in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of a hurricane that is expected to hit the region this week.