By Sonali Paul
MELBOURNE, April 29 (Reuters) - Oil prices climbed on
Wednesday, trimming some of this week's steep losses after U.S.
stockpiles rose less than expected and hopes grew for demand to
pick up as some European countries and U.S. cities moved to ease
coronavirus lockdowns.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures
jumped to a high of $13.85 and were up 8.8%, or $1.09, at $13.43
at 0038 GMT, paring a 27% plunge over the first two days of this
week.
Brent crude LCOc1 futures rose 1.8%, or 36 cents, to
$20.82, adding to a 2.3% gain on Tuesday.
U.S. crude inventories rose by 10 million barrels to 510
million barrels in the week to April 24, compared with analysts'
expectations for a build of 10.6 million barrels, data from
industry group the American Petroleum Institute showed on
Tuesday. "It's a little bit of good news that maybe storages aren't
filling quite as quickly in the U.S. as you would have thought,"
said Lachlan Shaw, head of commodity research at National
Australia Bank in Melbourne.
The market will get another read on U.S. inventories when
the U.S. Energy Information Administration releases weekly data
later on Wednesday. EIA/S
While storage is rapidly filling up, production cuts by U.S.
shale producers, estimated by consultants Rystad Energy at
300,000 barrels per day (bpd) for May and June, should help slow
flows into tanks.
That would add to production cuts of almost 10 million bpd
agreed by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC) and other large producers including Russia, or about 10%
of global production, due to take effect from May 1.
At the same time, hopes for at least a slow recovery in
demand helped to put a floor under oil prices, following two
days of heavy selling in June contracts by exchange-traded funds
looking to avoid the extreme volatility which hit WTI last week.
"The other thing coming through is more detail and a louder
groundswell towards plans for removing COVID restrictions,
particularly in Europe -- in countries like Spain, France,
Austria and Switzerland. That's going to see demand pick up,"
Shaw said.
(Editing by Shri Navaratnam)