Crude oil prices: Brent, WTI up around 0.8% as US crude stockpile declines

Crude oil prices edged higher in early trade on Thursday, July 11, with Brent and the U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rising by around 0.8%.

The climb in oil rates in the international market was linked to the decline of crude stockpile in the United States, the world's largest oil consumer.

Futures of global crude benchmark Brent for September delivery were trading at $85.76 per barrel at 0345 hours, up 68 cents or 0.8%.

The August contracts of WTI were trading at $82.81, up 71 cents or 0.78% as against the previous day's close.

US crude inventories ease

As per the data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) for the week ended July 5, the crude inventories in the US declined by 3.4 million barrels to 445.1 million barrels. This was a sharper fall as compared to a drawdown of 1.3 million barrels estimated by analysts polled by news agency Reuters.

The American Gasoline stock also fell by 2 million barrels to 229.7 million barrels during the Fourth of July holiday week. The decline was sharper as compared to the estimate of 600,000 barrels drop.

Fed rate cut optimism

Crude oil prices were also supported by the growing optimism over interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve. A lower lending rate would spur consumption, which in turn would increase oil demand in the world's largest economy.

The optimism was fuelled by Fed Chair Jerome Powell's remarks before the US Congress. While Powell said that it could not be concluded that inflation was moving down towards the 2% target, but added that he has "some confidence of that".