Oil Edges Higher After Two-day Slide

Oil ticked higher on Thursday after two days of declines, with a larger-than-expected draw in U.S. crude inventories offering some support.

Brent crude futures rose half a percent to $60.25 a barrel, while WTI crude futures were up 0.4 percent at $56.22.

Traders are buying on dips in the market after the release of inventory data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The EIA report revealed that U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 3.83m barrels over the past week, marking the largest decrease since late October.

At the same time, the EIA reported that gasoline and distillate fuel oil stocks increased by 7.7m barrels and 5.6m barrels, respectively.

Developments around Venezuela continue to grab headlines after U.S. President Donald Trump said the country “will be turning over” up to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil to the United States.

Also, U.S. forces seized two more sanctioned oil tankers and said the U.S. plans to control Venezuela’s oil sales ‘indefinitely’.

Elsewhere, European leaders, including in France and Germany, have announced they are working on a plan in the event the United States follows through on its threat to take over Greenland.

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