The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a build of 1.586 million barrels in U.S. crude oil inventories, compared to last week’s large draw of 5.25 million barrels.
Analysts were expecting a draw of 1.650 million barrels for the week. The total number of barrels of crude oil moved so far this year is – 4 million, according to API data, and there has been a net draw in crude oil inventories of more than 51 million barrels since April.
On Monday, the Department of Energy (DOE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) rose by 300,000 bbl last week, with SPR stockpiles remaining at a nearly four-decade low of 351.5 million bbl.
Oil prices were trading higher on Tuesday ahead of the API data release, with Brent trading up 0.75% at $93.99 by 12:50 p.m. ET – down $0.65 on the week – while WTI was trading up 0.88% on the day at $90.47. WTI is down more than $1 per barrel from this time last week.
Gasoline inventories fell by 70,000 barrels this week, compared to the 732,000 barrel build in the previous week. Gasoline inventories of 732,000 barrels are about 3% below the five-year average for this time of year. Distillate inventories fell by 1.698 million barrels, adding to the 258,000 barrel draw in the prior week. Distillate inventories are about 14% below the five-year average for this time of year.
Inventories at Cushing fell by an additional 828,000 barrels, following last week’s draw of 2.564 million barrels, leaving less than 22 million barrels in storage at Cushing.