Oil surges to yearly high amid signs of lower Saudi shipments

NEW YORK (Bloomberg) -- Oil rose near $55/bbl, the highest since November, as a government report showed a steep drop in imports from Saudi Arabia.

West Texas Intermediate crude rose as much as 2.8% after the Energy Information Administration said domestic inventories climbed by 920,000 bbl last week, below forecasts by industry and private analysts alike. Imports from Saudi Arabia fell by more than half from the previous week to 442,000 bpd, the second-lowest figure in data going back to 2010. Gasoline supplies fell for the first time in nine weeks.

“There’s a lot of good in here, if you’re a market bull,” said Rob Thummel, managing director at Tortoise, a Kansas-based money manager with $16 billion in energy investments. “OPEC’s made it very clear: lower exports of oil are coming to the U.S.”

WTI for March delivery gained $1.49 to $54.80/bbl at 11:21 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The U.S. benchmark had already been surging this week as political turmoil and fresh sanctions imperiled exports from Venezuela, holder of the world’s biggest crude reserves.