New York — Oil futures climbed on Wednesday to their highest in more than a week despite a surprise build in crude inventories, as buyers were encouraged by a small weekly decrease in US production. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said crude stocks rose by 118,000 barrels during the week ended June 23, while weekly production declined by 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 9.3 bpd. "Most interesting thing is crude oil production was down ... which is a significant decline given the increases in previous weeks," Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston, said. Lipow said production was most likely pressured by a storm in the Gulf of Mexico last week. Also, the production decline came after US output reached almost 9.4 million bpd during the prior week, the most since August 2015. Brent futures were up 55 cents, or 1.2% at $47.20 a barrel by 3.28pm GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude was up 44 cents, or 1%, at $44.68 per barrel. That was the highest sinc...
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