Oil Above $50 as Fuel-Stockpile Drop Counters Crude-Supply Gain
November futures dropped 0.5 percent in New York after climbing 1.6 percent Wednesday. Gasoline supplies dropped a third week to the lowest level since November 2015, while distillate stockpiles fell by the biggest amount since 2011, according to government data. Crude inventories expanded by 4.59 million barrels last week, more than the 3.9 million-barrel gain projected in a Bloomberg survey. U.S. oil production also rose a second week. “The market focused on the sharp recovery in crude demand implied” by the decline in fuel inventories on Wednesday, said Jens Naervig Pedersen, a senior analyst at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen. “It adds to the bullish sentiment buoyed by concerns about the Iran nuclear deal and headlines about OPEC looking at a possible extension of output cuts.” U.S. gasoline stockpiles fell by 2.13 million barrels last week to 216.2 million, the Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday. Distillate inventories, a category that includes diesel, dropped by 5.69 million barrels. Crude output expanded by 157,000 barrels a day to 9.51 million a day. Click Read More below for more of the story.