Cold weather in Europe has boosted demand for heating oil while the US government revealed that its oil reserves have shrunk. The US Department of Energy said crude oil stocks fell sharply during the Christmas period because supplies from non-US oil exporters slipped.

Crude inventories fell from 312.1 million barrels to 309.9 million barrels during the week that ended on 28 December, said the statistical arm of the department, better known as the Energy Information Administration. This is double to what analysts had generally expected.

At the moment oil traders are waiting to see if the OPEC cartel of oil exporters will cut oil production by 1.5 million barrels per day as they promised to do, in order to press prices higher. To achieve this, they have received support from non-OPEC oil exporters, which have promised to cut their output by about 500,000 barrels per day.