Crude oil advanced on Friday heading for its first weekly gains since late December after gaining support from a deeper-than-expected draw in US stockpiles. The EIA report on Wednesday showed that crude inventories fell to the lowest since March 2012 in the US. Crude inventories slid by 7.66 million barrels to 350.2 million last week. Gasoline stockpiles increased 6.18 million barrels last week while distillate supplies, including heating oil and diesel, declined 1.02 million barrels, said the EIA. Also giving support to oil prices was the economic data from the US this week, which signaled that economic recovery is sustained, improving the outlook for oil demand from the world’s largest oil consumer. The US jobless claims dropped more-than-expected last week to 326,000, while Philadelphia’s factory index climbed to a three-month high for January and earlier this week retail sales climbed more-than-expected in December. Meanwhile, OPEC said on Thursday that the exporter group lowered its oil output further and is pumping less than this year`s global demand, underlining the effect that outages in Libya and elsewhere are taking on production.

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