The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported on Tuesday a drop in crude oil inventories of 4.785 million barrels in the week ending December 25.
Analysts had predicted a draw of 2,100 million barrels in the week.
In the previous week, API reported an increase in oil stocks of 2.70 million barrels, after analysts forecast a draw of 3.135 million barrels.
Both Brent and WTI stood up on Tuesday morning, before the data was released in hopes of a bigger round of stimulus checks signed by President Donald Trump and the House on Monday. Gains remain limited, however, by OPEC’s plans to gradually increase oil production after the beginning of the year, despite blockages and reduced demand.
Moments before Tuesday’s data release, WTI had gone up $ 0.41 (+ 0.86%) to $ 48.03, an increase of $ 0.80 per barrel for the week. The Brent oil benchmark had risen on the day by $ 0.44 at that time (+ 0.87%) to $ 51.30 – an increase of about $ 1 per barrel for the week.
US oil production remained stable at 11.0 million bpd in the week ending December 18, according to the Energy Information Administration – 2.1 million bpd below the historical record of 13.1 million bpd reached in March.
The API reported a drop in gasoline inventories of 718,000 barrels of gasoline for the week ending December 25 – compared to the demand for 224,000 barrels from the previous week. Analysts had expected construction of 1.778 million barrels for the week.
Distillate stocks fell 1.877 million barrels in the week, compared to last week’s 1.03 million barrel increase, while Cushing’s stocks increased this week by 131,000 barrels.
At 4:36 pm EDT, the WTI benchmark was trading at $ 47.99, while Brent oil was trading at $ 51.07.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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