New York — Oil prices rose on Wednesday after the International Energy Agency (IEA) said a global surplus of crude was starting to shrink, even though US data showed another big increase in crude inventories due to the ongoing effects of Hurricane Harvey.US gasoline and distillate stocks fell sharply as Harvey shut nearly a quarter of the nation’s capacity with major Gulf Coast refineries only starting to come back to life in the last few days.The US Energy Information Administration’s weekly data showed a build of 5.9-million barrels of crude, exceeding expectations for a 3.2-million-barrel hike.Much of that was because of a near 10 million-barrel increase in stocks in the US Gulf region and as crude production rebounded from a brief Harvey interruption.Oil prices jumped after the report but then pared gains.US crude futures were up 53c, or 1.1%, to $48.75 per barrel and Brent crude was up 32c to $54.59 a barrel, about where prices were prior to the data."A sharp rebound in US oil ...
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