The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a drop in crude oil inventories of 5.821 million barrels on Tuesday in the week ending January 8.
Analysts forecast a draw in the stock of 2.266 million barrels in the week.
In the previous week, the API reported a fall in oil stocks of 1.663 million barrels, after analysts predicted a draw of 1.271 million barrels.
Both Brent and WTI rose on Tuesday afternoon before the data was released, still fueled by Saudi Arabia’s generous offer last week to, by itself – voluntarily – cut another 1 million barrels a day in its production. in February and March.
And while oil prices are now at their 11-month high, blockades inspired by the coronavirus continue to drag any hope of a recovery in oil demand, reducing oil price gains.
An hour before Tuesday’s data release, WTI had risen $ 0.90 for the day (+ 1.72%) to $ 53.14, more than $ 3 per barrel for the week. The Brent oil benchmark had risen $ 0.89 at that time (+ 1.60%) to $ 56.55 – almost $ 3 a barrel for the week.
US oil production has remained stable at 11.0 million bpd for the fourth consecutive week, according to the most recent data provided by the Energy Information Administration. This is still millions of barrels below the 13.1 million bpd high achieved in March 2020.
The API reported an increase in gasoline inventories of 1,876 million barrels for the week ending January 8 – compared to the increase of 5,473 million barrels from the previous week. Analysts had expected construction of 2,695 million barrels for the week.
Distillate stocks also saw another big increase of 4.433 million barrels in the week, compared to last week’s 7.136 million barrels increase, while Cushing’s stocks fell this week by 232,000 barrels.
At 4:34 pm 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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