WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Crude oil prices climbed higher on Wednesday, extending recent gains, amid concerns about global crude supplies due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, and data showing a drop in U.S. crude inventories.
A global agreement to release crude reserves failed to calm fears about supply disruptions from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Members of the International Energy Agency (IEA), which includes the United States and Japan, agreed to release 60 million barrels of crude from their reserves to try to quell the sharp increase in prices that pushed major benchmarks past $100 a barrel.
The situation across energy markets is very serious, IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said on Tuesday.
As expected, OPEC and allies, known collectively as OPEC+, today agreed to stick to their plans of small output rise in April, defying calls for more crude even as prices rally to multi-year highs on Russia supply disruption fears.
The group said it had agreed to adjust the upward monthly overall output by 400,000 barrels per day for the month of April.
West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended higher by $7.19 or nearly 7% at $110.60, the highest settlement since May 2011.
Brent crude futures were up $9.91 or 9.4% at $114.88 a barrel a little while ago.
Data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) today showed crude stockpiles in the U.S. dropped by 2.6 million barrels to 413.4 million barrels in the week ended February 25th.
The data said oil stocks at Cushing, Oklahoma, fell by 972,000 barrels from the previous week, to 22.8 million barrels.
Gasoline stockpiles dropped by 468,000 barrels to 246 million barrels last week, while Distillate stocks fell by 574,000 barrels to 119.1 million barrels.
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