oil prices climbed in wednesdays session with a barrel of wti crude reaching 8250 after the bureau of labor statistics reported lowerthanexpected inflation in march and following remarks by the us energy secretary jennifer granholm who expressed intentions to return strategic petroleum reserves spr to preukraine war levels only a few months ago the biden administration said it wished to replenish the spr at 6770 levels that are 15 lower than wti crude prices wednesday the united states oil fund uso an exchange traded fund that tracks the performance of wti crude oil prices is up 17 on wednesday and 25 for the week crude prices are trading at their highest levels since late november 2022 nearing the crucial 200day moving average which lies at 8330 read also exxonmobil explores acquisition of pioneer natural amid bid to dominate permian basin on april 3 opec and its allies agreed to a 12millionbarrelperday reduction in crude oil output through the end of 2023 after opec announced additional supply cutbacks the us energy information administration eia raised its projection for 2023 wti oil prices by 28 to 7924 per barrel in its latest shortterm energy outlook despite expecting us oil output to climb by nearly 700000 bpd this year to 1254 million bpd we are now approaching a phase of the year where oil stocks begin to draw giovanni staunovo commodity analyst said on twitter according to eia statistics crude oil stocks in spr were 371175 thousand barrels in the week ending march 31 the lowest level since november 1983 the eia reported that crude oil stockpiles in the united states grew by 060 million barrels in the week ending april 7 2023 following two weeks of declines of more than 11 million barrels