'The news event was storage at Cushing,' Bob Yawger, director of the Futures Division with Mizhuo Americas, told Rigzone.

The WTI posted a 2-percent gain Thursday amid a report that inventories are down at the Cushing, Okla.

, crude storage hub.

“The news event was storage at Cushing,” Bob Yawger, director of the Futures Division with Mizuho Americas, told Rigzone, referring to Genscape’s report of a 1.1 million-barrel decrease from July 27 to 31. “That’s the big issue today.”

September WTI futures gained $1.30 Thursday, settling at $68.96 per barrel after trading within a range of $66.92 to $69.36. The October Brent benchmark price increased $1.06 to settle at $73.45.

“The bigger issue, in my opinion, was that we took out support versus $67.03 from July 17 and 18,” continued Yawger. “We did trade below but still close to $67 even a big whole number. There was no sign that the specs were bailing against either of those numbers, either the double bottom or the big whole number, and I think that certain people took that as a sign that this bear buy Wellhead market … may be over and maybe it’s time to cover some of those shorts we have on the books and you have this super-sized short covering rally through the course of the day. I reckon it’s nothing more than that.”

In addition, Yawger noted that “a lot of talk” about Iran ramping up military exercises in the Persian Gulf – particularly the Strait of Hormuz – contributed to the increasing crude benchmarks Thursday.

Henry Hub natural gas futures for September gained six cents to settle at $2.82 while reformulated gasoline increased two cents to end the session at $2.07 a gallon.