The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a drop in crude oil inventories of 5.272 million barrels in the week ending January 22.
Analysts predicted a stock draw of less than 430,000 barrels for the week.
In the previous week, API reported an increase in oil stocks of 2.562 million barrels, after analysts predicted a draw of 1.167 million barrels.
Oil prices fell on Tuesday before the data were released. China’s blockades, the IEA’s bleak prospects for oil demand, a slow global launch of the coronavirus vaccine and a possible delay or hiccup in the next round of stimulus payments that the new government said would be postponed are immediately affecting the prices.
Half an hour before Tuesday’s data release, WTI had dropped $ 0.27 for the day (-0.51%) to $ 52.50, down $ 0.80 since last Wednesday.
The Brent oil benchmark had dropped $ 0.06 at that time (-0.11%) to $ 55.82 – down $ 0.70 for the week.
US oil production has remained stable at 11.0 million bpd for six consecutive weeks, according to the most recent data provided by the Energy Information Administration, with limited expectations of any rapid increases in production as oil companies oil act with care.
The API reported an increase in gasoline inventories of 3.058 million barrels for the week ending January 22 – compared to the increase of 1.129 million barrels from the previous week. Analysts had expected construction of 1.764 million barrels for the week.
Distillate inventories increased by 1.398 million barrels during the week, adding to last week’s 816,000 barrel increase, while Cushing’s inventories fell by 3.475 million barrels.
At 4:36 pm EDT, the WTI benchmark was trading at $ 52.55, while Brent oil was trading at $ 55.87.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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