The price of crude oil was off from early morning lows Wednesday morning after China said it imported more crude oil in February.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for April 2010 were up $0.29 to $81.78 a barrel. Crude has been hovering above the $80-mark in the past five sessions.
In news bullish to oil, global demand for crude oil will rise quicker than expected in 2010, monthly report from the OPEC said. It added that world demand will go up by 880,000 barrels per day (bpd), up from the earlier expectations for a rise of 810,000 bpd.
Moreover the U.S. Energy Information Administration raised its outlook for crude demand and expects consumption to grow to 1.5 million barrels a day, up from the earlier forecast of 1.2 million barrels.
Today China reported a narrower trade surplus of $7.6 billion in February and said the country imported 4.83 million barrels of crude oil a day, the second highest rate on record on a daily basis.
Yesterday, the American Petroleum Institute said U.S. crude inventories jumped 6.5 million barrels last week. Analysts were expecting a drop of 1.6 million barrels mainly due to a cold weather spell in most parts of the U.S.
Nonetheless, inventories of gasoline and distillates fell more than analysts expected, the institute's data revealed.
Meanwhile, the greenback was leveling off versus the euro, trimming its early morning gains, and continued to move higher versus the British pound.
Traders will look to U.S. crude oil inventories data from the Energy Information Administration scheduled for release later today to get more evidence on the demand scenario. Analysts expect crude oil inventories build up by 2.1 million barrels and gasoline stocks to dip by 0.33 million barrels.
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.