Crude oil futures were higher during mid-afternoon trade in Asia Thursday on positive US inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute coupled with rising optimism from the OPEC output cuts. At 2:08 pm in Singapore (0608 GMT), the front-month ICE Brent March crude futures were up 23 cents/b (0.35%) from Tuesday’s settle at $66.23/b, while the front-month NYMEX February light sweet crude futures contract was 15 cents/b (0.25%) higher at $61.21/b. According to analysts’ reports quoting the latest inventory report from the API, US crude inventories fell 7.8 million barrels for the week ended December 27, which more than doubled analysts’ expectations of a 3.1 million barrels draw over the same period, a survey conducted by S&P Global Platts on Monday showed. Meanwhile, total US gasoline stocks are expected to have added 3.7 […]