FX.co ★ Oil Futures Settle Modestly Higher After Inventory Data

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Wednesday, lifted by data showing a notable drop in gasoline and distillate stockpiles last week.

Oil prices also found support from news that Russian gas company Gazrom has halted gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria for rejecting its demand to pay in Russian rubles.

However, concerns about outlook for demand due to the lockdown in China limited oil's uptick.

West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended higher by $0.32 or about 0.3% at $102.02 a barrel.

Brent crude futures were up $0.14 or 0.13% at $104.75 a barrel a little while ago.

Data released by U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed crude inventories rose by 700,000 barrels in the week ended April 22. Gasoline inventories dropped by 1.6 million barrels in the week, significantly more than an expected drop of about 100,000 barrels.

Distillate stockpiles fell 1.4 million barrels last week, the EIA data showed.

Data released from The American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday showed stocks of crude oil in the U.S. surged to 4.8 million barrels in the week ended April 22 versus a 4.5-million-barrel slump in the previous week.