Oil prices rally further after crude stocks fall more than expected | Reuters

Oil prices rally further after crude stocks fall more than expected | Reuters

Oil prices were higher on Wednesday, with U.S. crude gaining for the seventh straight day, after industry data showed a bigger than expected drop in inventories and investors shrugged off rising new deaths and infections in the pandemic.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was up 34 cents, or 0.6%, at $53.55 a barrel by 0805 GMT after gaining nearly 2% on Tuesday. Brent crude was up 36 cents, or 0.6%, at $$56.94, having risen 1.7% in the previous session.

Both benchmarks are trading at the highest since February, before the coronavirus outbreak in China began spreading across the world and billions of people went into lockdown to prevent a pandemic that is now in a deadlier second wave.

Prices are shrugging off the latest developments in Europe and the United States where death tolls and new infections keep rising, with the focus on rollouts of vaccines, however patchy.