Oil up over cooling inflation worries, expected fall in crude inventories

Oil prices rose marginally on Wednesday due to positive market sentiment following comments by the US Federal Reserve Chair on decreasing inflation and an expected decrease in US crude oil stockpiles.

International benchmark Brent crude traded at $83.75 per barrel at 09.48 a.m. local time (0648 GMT), up 0.07% from the closing price of $83.69 a barrel in the previous trading session.

At the same time, American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) traded at $77.36 per barrel, a 0.3% rise after the previous session closed at $77.14 a barrel.

Prices were supported after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said inflation was beginning to decline.

‘The disinflationary process, the process of getting inflation down, has begun,’ Powell said at an event at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. ‘These are the very early stages of disinflation.’

However, he warned that this process might not be smooth, but rather ‘a process that takes a significant period of time.’

Traders’ appetite for cheaper dollar-indexed crude oil increased as the US dollar fell.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported its estimate of a decline of almost 2.2 million barrels in US crude oil stocks late Tuesday, in contrast to the market consensus of a 2.2 million-barrel rise.

A decrease in the stockpile indicates an increase in crude demand, which drives up prices.

• American Petroleum Institute