West Texas Intermediate futures for February delivery climbed to $36.41 (+0.75%), while Brent crude advanced to $36.44 (+0.91%) after the American Petroleum Institute said U.S. crude oil inventories declined 3.6 million barrels last week. Now market participants are waiting for official data from the Energy Information Administration due later today. Analysts expect a 1.5 million barrel increase.
Fundamentals remain unfavorable for oil and many analysts expect the low-price period to continue in 2016.