Oil prices rise nearly 4%, Brent settles above $103

Brent crude futures rose $3.83, or 3.86%, to $103.08 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained $1.64, or 1.81%, to $92.16 a barrel.

According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), crude oil inventories increased by 3 million barrels in the week ended September 18, reaching 426.4 million barrels. Analysts had expected inventories to fall by approximately 641,000 barrels.

Crude inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub also increased, rising by 2.2 million barrels to

23.7 million barrels.

US refinery crude runs declined by 519,000 barrels per day, while refinery utilization fell by 2.8 percentage points to 94%.

At the same time, distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, dropped by 428,000 barrels to 107.4 million barrels. Gasoline inventories also declined by 1.7 million barrels to 206 million barrels.

US net crude oil imports increased by 369,000 barrels per day during the week.

Earlier, Qazinform reported Kazakhstan would boost capacity at three refineries through expansion projects.