The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a decline in crude oil inventories of 5,821 million barrels for the week ending Jan. 8 on Tuesday.
Analysts had predicted a stock draw of 2,266 million barrels for the week.
Last week, the API reported a decline in oil inventories of 1,663 million barrels, after analysts forecast a draw of 1,271 million barrels.
Both Brent and WTI had stood up to release the data Tuesday afternoon, still buoyed by Saudi Arabia’s generous bid last week to single-handedly – and voluntarily – cut an additional 1 million barrels per day from oil production in February and March.
And although oil prices are now at their 11-month high, the coronavirus-inspired lockdowns continue to drag hopes of a recovery in oil demand, dampening oil price hikes.
An hour before the release of Tuesday’s data, WTI was up $ 0.90 (+ 1.72%) one day to $ 53.14, up more than $ 3 a barrel for the week. The Brent crude oil benchmark was up $ 0.89 (+ 1.60%) at the time to $ 56.55 – up from nearly $ 3 a barrel over the past week.
According to the latest data from the Energy Information Administration, US oil production remained stable at 11.0 million bpd for the fourth straight week. These are still millions of barrels below the 13.1 million bpd reached in March 2020.
The API reported a built-in gasoline supply of 1,876 million barrels for the week ending January 8 – compared to the previous week of 5,473 million barrels. Analysts had expected a build-up of 2.695 million barrels for the week.
Distillate inventories also saw a large increase of 4.433 million barrels this week, compared to last week’s increase of 7.136 million barrels, while Cushing inventories fell 232,000 barrels this week.
At 4:34 p.m. EDT, the WTI benchmark was trading at $ 53.16, while Brent oil was trading at $ 56.56.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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