Oil prices gain on sharp U.S. crude inventory drop - Reuters

Oil prices gain on sharp U.S. crude inventory drop - Reuters:

Oil prices edged up on Wednesday after a steep drop in U.S. crude inventories, but another record day for COVID-19 cases worldwide kept gains in check.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 gained 35 cents to $43.57 a barrel by 10:57 a.m. EDT (1457 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures CLc1 were up 18 cents to $41.22.

U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 10.6 million barrels last week to 526 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said, in their largest drawdown since December.

Net U.S. crude imports fell 1 million barrels per day to 1.9 million bpd, the EIA said.