Oil prices rise for fifth day after U.S. stocks decline

By Aaron Sheldrick
TOKYO, July 31 (Reuters) - Oil prices rose for a fifth day
on Wednesday, buoyed by a bigger than expected drop in U.S.
inventories and as investors awaited a widely expected cut in
interest rates by the Federal Reserve, the first in more than 10
years.
Brent crude LCOc1 was up 33 cents, or 0.5%, at $65.05 a
barrel by 0044 GMT.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 gained 28 cents,
or 0.5%, to $58.33 a barrel.
For the month, however, both contracts were set to ease due
to ongoing worries about oil demand, with Brent heading for a
decline of about 2.3% and WTI down slightly.
Still U.S. inventories have been falling in recent weeks
suggesting demand concerns are overstated.
Stocks fell again last week, along with gasoline and
distillate inventories, data from industry group the American
Petroleum Institute (API) showed on Tuesday.
"There is a definitive seasonal trend emerging as inventory
draws continue to beat analysts' expectations by a mile
suggesting analysts have grossly underestimated consumption and
the breadth of seasonal demand this year," VM Markets Pte said
in a note.
Crude inventories fell by 6 million barrels in the week
ended July 26 to 443 million barrels, compared with analysts'
expectations in a Reuters poll for a decrease of 2.6 million
barrels, the API dta showed. API/S
Gasoline stocks fell by 3.1 million barrels, compared with
analysts' expectations for a 1.4 million-barrel decline.
Distillate fuels stockpiles, which include diesel and
heating oil, fell by 890,000 barrels, compared with expectations
for a 1 million-barrel gain, the API data showed.
If confirmed by U.S. government data on Wednesday morning,
the decline would put crude stocks down for a seventh week in a
row. That would be longest stretch since they fell for a record
10 consecutive weeks ending in January 2018, according to
Refinitiv data going back to 1982. EIA/S
Total crude stockpiles, however, would still be about 3%
higher than the average for the five years between 2014-2018
average for this time of year. USOILC=ECI
Central bankers in the United States began their two-day
meeting on Tuesday and were expected to lower borrowing costs
for the first time since the depths of the financial crisis more
than a decade ago.