The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported an increase in crude oil inventories of 2.562 million barrels on Tuesday in the week ending January 15.
Analysts forecast a draw of 1.167 million barrels in the week.
In the previous week, API reported a draw in oil stocks of 5.821 million barrels, after analysts predicted a draw of 2.266 million barrels.
Oil prices were mixed on Wednesday before the data was released, with WTI up and Brent down. A widespread blockade in China that has kidnapped millions of residents due to concerns about an increase in coronavirus cases there, the IEA’s bleak outlook on oil demand, a slow global launch of the coronavirus vaccine that has been plagued by technical problems, as well as reports of adverse effects and a prolonged US stimulus, high as investors dream of increased economic activities and are encouraged to invest money in riskier ventures – like oil – all contributed to a cloudy water effect for the commodity.
An hour before Wednesday’s data release, WTI had risen $ 0.30 for the day (+ 0.57%) to $ 53.28, a modest $ 0.015 since last week.
The Brent oil benchmark, on the other hand, dropped $ 0.05 on that day (-0.09%) to $ 56.55 – down $ 0.70 for the week.
US oil production has stagnated at 11.0 million barrels, according to the latest data provided by the Energy Information Administration, and there is unlikely to be any significant increase in US oil production as long as stocks remain high – above than a few million barrels could fix.
The API reported an increase in gasoline inventories of 1.129 million barrels for the week ending January 15 – compared to the increase of 1.876 million barrels from the previous week. Analysts had expected construction of 2.771 million barrels for the week.
Completing the week’s accumulations of stock are the distillates, which had an increase of 816,000 barrels in the week, adding to the increase of 4.433 million barrels last week, while Cushing’s inventories had the only drop this week, falling 4.285 million of barrels.
At 4:34 pm EDT, the WTI benchmark was trading at $ 53.28, while Brent oil was trading at $ 55.97.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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