By Alex Kozul-Wright
Oil prices are rising after two days of falls. A bigger than-expected drawdown in U.S. crude inventories has amplified new developments in Venezuela.
Brent crude has climbed 1.75% to $60.65 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $56.95 a barrel, up 1.73%.
Oil stocks are trending up today. Exxon is has risen 1.35%, Chevron by 0.9%, ConocoPhillips by 2.66%, and Occidental is up 0.63%.
Both oil benchmarks fell more than 1% on both Tuesday and Wednesday, after President Donald Trump said Venezuela agreed to give the U.S. up to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil, which would raise global supply.
However, prices got a lift after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that crude-oil stockpiles fell by 3.8 million barrels last week against expectations of a 900,000-barrel decline, the biggest drop since late October.
Meanwhile, Washington's actions in Venezuela yesterday -- including plans to turn over up to 50 million barrels to the U.S. and the seizure of two tankers -- incurred supply-side risks.
Still, energy markets appear largely "unbothered and unimpressed" by Trump's latest interventions in Venezuela, Julius Baer's Norbert Rücker wrote in a research note.
"Venezuela's oil exports are too small for a full disruption to matter in the current environment of ample supplies," the head of economics and next generation research says.
Rücker also noted that supply disruption risks in the near-term remain limited. The upshot is that Julius Baer expect oil prices to trade in the high $50s for much of 2026.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 08, 2026 11:15 ET (16:15 GMT)
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