Crude oil prices are advancing nearly 2% on Wednesday, lifting the barrel of West Texas Intermediate to the area of daily tops just below the $49.00 mark, although it lost some impetus soon afterwards. Prices for the black gold seems to have found a comfort zone around $48.50 today after the EIA’s weekly report showed US crude inventories decreased by more than 230K barrels during last week vs. an expected build of more than 3.1 million barrels. Further data saw Distillate Stocks decreasing by nearly 4.230 million barrels and Gasoline inventories dropping by just above 3.0 million barrels. In addition, supplies at Cushing rose by 2.130 million barrels. WTI is posting some moderate gains today following the recent sharp sell-off to multi-month lows near the $47.00 mark on Tuesday, all against increasing scepticism on the effectiveness of the OPEC output cut deal on prices and prospects of rising US production. At the moment the barrel of WTI is up 1.91% at $48.63 and a breakout of $48.85 (high Mar.15) would expose $50.11 (high Mar.10) and finally $50.90 (100-day sma). On the downside, the next support is located at $47.09 (2017 low Mar.14) followed by $44.82 (low Nov.29 2016) and then $42.55 (low Sep.20 2016).