WTI rises to 5-day highs ahead of EIA data

• DXY weakness underpins.
• Higher on North Sea pipeline outage.
• Bullish API crude inventory supports.

WTI (oil futures on NYMEX) is on a steady rise so far this week, now extending the advance print fresh five-day tops at $ 57.88.

WTI: Will it regain $ 58?

The barrel of WTI keeps the bid tone intact in Europe, as the bulls expect a drawdown in the US crude stockpiles report due out by the EIA later today, especially after yesterday’s bigger-than-expected drop seen in the US crude inventory report released by the API. The API report showed that the US crude inventories fell by 5.2 million barrels in the week to Dec. 15 to 438.7 million.

The sentiment around the black gold also remains underpinned amid ongoing the ongoing outage of the North Sea Forties pipeline system, which continues to threaten the crude supplies.

Operator Ineos hopes to be able to fix a crack in the pipeline, which can pump around 450,000 barrels per day of crude, within two to four weeks from Dec. 11, Reuters reports.

Further, a broadly subdued US dollar ahead of the US House tax re-vote also collaborates to the upbeat tone seen around oil prices. Focus now remains on the official US government crude stockpiles data due from the EIA later on Wednesday for the next push higher.

At the time of writing, WTI trades +0.31% higher at $ 57.76 while Brent trades flat at $ 63.75.

WTI Technical Levels

The resistances are aligned at $58.50 (psychological levels) ahead of $59 (Nov 24 high) and $59.85 (April 2015 tops). On the downside, supports are located at $57 (zero figure), $56.39 (50-DMA) and $55.82 (Dec 7 low).”