Oil prices gained Friday morning in Asia after crude oil inventory draw figures and trade talk progress.
Brent Oil Futures was up 0.13% at $61.03 a barrel, as of 12:40AM ET (04:40 GMT), while Crude Oil WTI Futures was up 0.12% at $56.37 a barrel.
The Energy Information Administration released an estimate saying that U.S. crude oil inventories had dropped by 4.8 million barrels in the week to August 30.
This comes after the American Petroleum Institute (API) placed crude oil inventory build at an estimated 401,000 barrels for the week ending Aug 29. This made stocks rise to 429.1 million barrels, against expectations of a 2.5 million barrel decline expected by analysts.
Oil prices started to gain after favourable economic data came in from China, the world’s second-largest oil consumer.
Recent data demonstrated that China’s services sector expanded by the fastest pace in three months in August, driven by new orders. China is the world’s second-largest oil consumer.
In Hong Kong, Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s decision to formally and fully withdraw a controversial extradition bill also helped raise investor sentiment about Chinese markets. The Chinese special administrative region has faced much political unrest since June due to the proposed bill.
However, observers expect the unrest to continue as protestors had only one of their five demands met.
Still, adding fuel to the gains is U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s announcement that talks with a Chinese delegate about the U.S.-China trade war have been scheduled for “the coming weeks” in Washington.
"Crude has been trading higher after the news that China and the United States would restart their trade talks with an important meeting in October," said Alfonso Esparza, market analyst at OANDA.
Though both economies have suffered losses, neither seem willing to budge. The trade war has become the main factor of note when forecasting oil demand trends, taking precedence even over OPEC policies and rising U.S. crude oil production.