July 31, 2003	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 30, 1424

LONDON, July 30: IPE Brent crude futures erased their losses on Wednesday, buoyed by weekly US data that showed a larger-than-expected gasoline draw but tempered by a crude stocks figure which fell within analysts’ forecasts.

US data from the Energy Information Administration and the American Petroleum Institute showed crude stocks rose roughly as expected.

At 1545 GMT, September Brent crude futures stood eight cents higher at $28.18 a barrel on a volume of 22,816 lots from a session low of $27.86 while NYMEX September crude was up 11 cents at $30.35 per barrel.

“The crude certainly on the EIA data was as expected but the gasoline draws in both cases were larger than anticipated, so I think people were taking more note of that particular element of it and that’s brought it up to these numbers,” one trader said.

“But there’s obviously an element of confusion as well because the market is so thin and so quiet.”—Reuters