The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a decline in crude oil inventories of 5.272 million barrels for the week ending Jan. 22.
Analysts had forecast a smaller inventory draw of 430,000 barrels for the week.
Last week, the API reported that oil deposits were built in at 2,562 million barrels, after analysts forecast a draw of 1,167 million barrels.
Oil prices fell on Tuesday prior to the release of the data. China’s blocking, the IEA’s grim outlook for oil demand, a slow global rollout of the coronavirus vaccine, and a potential delay or hiccup in the next round of stimulus payments that the new administration said would be promptly pushed through. Prices.
Half an hour before the release of Tuesday’s data, WTI had fallen $ 0.27 (-0.51%) that day to $ 52.50, down from $ 0.80 since Wednesday.
The Brent crude oil benchmark at the time was down $ 0.06 (-0.11%) to $ 55.82, down from $ 0.70 over the week.
According to the latest data from the Energy Information Administration, US oil production has remained stable at 11.0 million barrels per day for six consecutive weeks, with limited expectations of a rapid increase in production if oil companies proceed with caution.
The API reported built-in gasoline supply of 3,058 million barrels for the week ending January 22 – compared to the previous week of 1,129 million barrels. Analysts had expected a build of 1.764 million barrels for the week.
Distillate inventories increased by 1.398 million barrels this week, on top of last week’s increase of 816,000 barrels, while Cushing’s inventories fell 3.475 million barrels.
At 4:36 p.m. EDT, the WTI benchmark was trading at $ 52.55, while Brent crude oil was trading at $ 55.87.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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