Oil prices surged to a five-month high Wednesday after an unexpected and sharp decrease in U.S. distillate stockpiles convinced traders to shrug off a rising crude surplus and the end of a Kuwaiti oil-workers’ strike . The U.S. Energy Information Administration said Wednesday that distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel, fell by nearly 3.6 million barrels when analysts expected no change. It was enough to balance out an addition to crude stockpiles and send total oil and petroleum stockpiles lower—though barely—for only the sixth time in 24 weeks dating back to the start of November. Diesel rallied the most on the news, hitting gains of 5.5% on the day and its highest settlement since Dec. 4. U.S. oil ended the day up 3.8%, but the rally was actually much stronger, having started from losses that had been as deep as 3% in overnight trading. The combined stockpiles […]