Nymex crude futures were higher in today's after-hours session as a drop in prices yesterday attracted renewed buying.
At 08:30 GMT, the front-month October US crude futures contract was at $72.43/bl, rising by 38¢/bl from its close yesterday.
The front-month October Ice Brent crude futures contract was 46¢/bl higher at $72.28/bl.
The Nymex September front-month heating oil futures contract in after-hours trade rose by 1.37¢/USG to $1.8696/USG, while Nymex September RBOB gasoline was higher by 1.54¢/USG to $2.0353/USG.
October Nymex crude futures contract briefly hit $75/bl yesterday but failed to breach the level, and ended $2.32/bl lower at $72.05/bl.
But prices are expected to drift pending the release of US EIA stocks data later today. The EIA data are of particular interest this week, as traders are trying to gauge if last week's EIA data that showed an 8.4mn decline in crude stocks is indicative of a trend.
Industry group American Petroleum Institute (API) released its weekly stocks data yesterday, reporting a 4.3mn bl rise in crude stocks.
Nymex crude prices will likely pull back if the EIA figures show a rise in crude stocks similar to the API report, analysts said.
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