Crude oil futures ended higher on Wednesday after US distillate inventories posted a large drawdown and refining activity picked up, boosting hopes for rising fuel demand. Data showing a much smaller than expected increase in US crude inventories last week also contributed to oil's advance. Data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed crude inventories in the US rose by 90,000 barrels last week ending April 23, much less than an expected increase of 659,000 barrels. Distillate stockpiles fell by 3.3 million barrels in the week, and refining capacity use rose to 85.4% on the week. Meanwhile, the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported an extensive build in crude oil inventories of 4.32 million barrels for the week ending April 23.
Crude oil futures for June rose $0.92 or 1.5 percent to settle at $63.86 barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. June Brent crude gained $0.85 or 1.3 percent to settle at $67.27 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.