Oil prices increase with recovering demand appetite in US

By Zeynep Beyza Kilic

ANKARA (AA) - Oil prices rose on Thursday after US data revealed a decline in crude inventories, indicating an improvement in the country's oil demand.

International benchmark Brent crude traded at $78.04 per barrel at 9.25 a.m. local time (0625 GMT), a 0.41% increase from the closing price of $77.72 a barrel in the previous trading session.

Concurrently, the American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) traded at $74.55 per barrel, up 0.34% from the previous session's close of $74.30 per barrel.

On Wednesday, the Energy Information Administration announced a 5.1 million-barrel drop in oil stockpiles to 460.9 million barrels during the week ending April 21.

The American Petroleum Institute predicted a draw of 6.08 million barrels. Despite the lower-than-expected inventory drop, demand is rising.

To support prices even further, the US dollar index fell, making crude oil less expensive for foreign buyers.

The US dollar index, which measures the value of the American dollar against a basket of currencies, including the Japanese yen, British pound, Canadian dollar, Swedish krona and Swiss franc, fell to 101.095 at 9.20 a.m. (0620 GMT), a 0.11% decline from Wednesday's closing of 101.205.

Nonetheless, price increases were limited due to ongoing recessionary concerns caused by weak global economic data.

Investors are expecting new data later in the day to provide more insight into the validity of recession fears.

The first-quarter US GDP data, as well as the Federal Reserve's personal consumption expenditures price index, are expected to show a slowdown in economic growth.