Investing.com - Oil prices gained on Wednesday as reports from the American Petroleum Institute (API) showed the U.S. crude inventories fell, while a potential shortfall of Iranian oil due to U.S. sanctions continue to weigh.
Brent Oil Futures for October delivery rose 0.3% to $72.85 per barrel at 12:30AM ET (04:30 GMT), while Crude Oil WTI Futures for October delivery also climbed 0.41% to $66.12 a barrel.
The API reported on Tuesday that crude inventories in the U.S. declined by 5.2 million barrels in the week to Aug. 17 to 405.6 million barrels, exceeding analysts’ forecasts for a fall of 1.5 million barrels.
Official data from EIA is set to be released later on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the U.S. economic sanctions on Iran, which would start to take effect in November, received some residual focus as investors remained concerns over how much oil would be removed from global markets due to the renewed sanctions.
“The Iran issue continues to occupy traders’ minds,” said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at AxiTrader.
Crude oil prices have gained in recent sessions on optimism for progress on China-U.S. trade talks, slated for Wednesday. Yet, reports that China is shifting their cargoes to vessels owned by National Iranian Tanker to continue buying Iranian crude despite the re-imposition of sanctions by the United States does little to get the talks off to a positive start.
The U.S. Dollar Index was little changed on Wednesday, although reports that U.S. President Donald Trump said he is “not thrilled” about the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise rates were cited as headwind for the dollar earlier in the week.