NEW YORK, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. oil prices gained ground on Wednesday due to the significant week-on-week decrease of U.S. gasoline stocks for the week ending Aug. 5.
Though U.S. commercial crude oil stocks grew 5.5 million barrels last week, gasoline stocks in the United States showed a deep drop of 5 million barrels, which suggested continuous resilience in gasoline demand, according to data issued by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
U.S. refineries operated at 94.3 percent of their operable capacity last week, higher than 91 percent in the previous week, said the EIA report.
An outsized rebound of implied gasoline demand last week probably gave some comfort to those who are concerned about potential demand destruction, according to Matt Smith, lead oil analyst, Americas, for Kpler.
The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for September delivery gained 1.43 U.S. dollars, or 1.58 percent, to settle at 91.93 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for October delivery increased 1.09 dollars, or 1.13 percent, to close at 97.40 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
