2018.10.0315:33:00UTC+00Oil Ends Higher Despite Jump In Weekly Crude Stockpiles

Crude oil prices climbed higher and stayed at near four-year highs on Wednesday, amid reports about a drop in oil exports from Iran ahead of the upcoming U.S. sanctions and on expectations of short supply in the market next month.

Oil prices moved up despite U.S. Energy Information Administration's data that showed domestic crude supplies to have surged by about 8 million barrels in the week ended September 28. That was the largest weekly climb so far in the year.

In the week ended September 21, crude stockpiles had increased by 1.9 million barrels, after five consecutive weeks of declines.

According to EIA, gasoline stockpiles fell by 500,000 barrels last week, while distillate stockpiles declined by 1.8 million barrels. The agency also said that supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma, the key delivery point for Nymex crude, increased by 1.699 barrels last week.

On Tuesday evening, the American Petroleum Institute released a report that showed U.S. crude oil stocks rose by 907,000 barrels last week.

Crude oil futures for November ended up $1.18, or 1.6%, at $76.41 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Tuesday, crude oil futures ended down $0.07, or 0.09%, at $75.23 a barrel.

With OPEC and some top major non-OPEC producers including Russia not having much spare capacity to increase output any significantly to offset the supply shortage due to the ban on Iranian oil, many analysts feel crude oil prices will move further up north by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary Mike Pompeo announced today that the United States is terminating the 1955 Treaty of Amity, its economic agreement with Iran.