TOKYO, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Oil prices edged higher on Friday,
with crude benchmarks poised for multi-week gains amid a sharp
drawdown in U.S. crude inventories, while trade tensions eased
after Washington and Beijing agreed to hold high-level talks
next month.
Brent crude was up 3 cents at $60.98 a barrel, as of 0144
GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 8
cents at $56.38.
Brent is set to mark its fourth weekly gain, while U.S.
crude is headed for a second weekly rise.
"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.
Beijing and Washington on Thursday agreed to hold high-level
talks in early October in Washington, cheering investors hoping
that the trade war may end tit-for-tat tariff hikes that are
chipping away at economic growth. The prolonged trade dispute has been a dampener on oil
prices, but Brent is still up about 13% this year, helped by
production cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, including Russia, to
drain inventories.
U.S. crude and product inventories fell last week, with
crude drawing down for a third consecutive week despite a jump
in imports, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said.
EIA/S
Crude stocks dropped 4.8 million barrels, nearly double
analysts' expectations, to 423 million barrels, their lowest
since October 2018.
Oil prices on Thursday soared more than 2% after the EIA
report, although they gradually trimmed gains as investors are
not entirely convinced that the Sino-U.S. trade talks will yield
results.