NEW YORK, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices inched up on Thursday, as investors digested a latest weekly petroleum status report that shows declining U.S. crude stocks last week.
The West Texas Intermediate for October delivery increased 4 U.S. cents to settle at 56.30 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and Brent crude for November delivery rose 0.25 dollar to close at 60.95 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
For the week ending Aug. 30, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories sharply fell by 4.8 million barrels from the previous week, said the U.S. Energy Information Administration in its closely-watched report on Thursday.
At 423 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are at the five year average for this time of year. Yet U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.9 million barrels per day (bpd) last week, rising 976,000 bpd from the previous week. Enditem