The front-month WTI crude oil contract strengthened to the highest level in more than a month. The WTI-Brent spread also narrowed to the level not seen since March 31. The recovery in WTI crude price was helped by the unexpected decline in US oil inventory. The report from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that total crude oil and petroleum products (ex. SPR) stocks dropped -0.54 mmb to 1394.88 mmb in the week ended May 8. Crude oil inventory surprisingly dropped -0.75 mmb (consensus: +4.15 mmb) to 531.48 mmb. Stockpile fell in 3 out of 5 PADDs. PADD 2 (Midwest) saw a decline of -3.37 mmb. Cushing stock fell -3 mmb to 62.44 mmb. Utilization rate shrank -2.6 percentage points to 67.9% while crude production slipped -0.3M bpd to 11.6M bpd for the week. Crude oil imports slipped -0.32M bpd to 5.39M bpd in the week.