The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported on Tuesday a drop in crude oil inventories of 5.8 million barrels in the week ending February 12.
Analysts predicted a draw in the stock of 2.429 million barrels in the week.
In the previous week, the API reported a drop in oil stocks of 3.5 billion barrels, after analysts forecast an increase of 985,000 barrels.
Oil prices rose on Tuesday before the data were released, supported by the shock of freezing temperatures in parts of the United States, including Texas, which caused production interruptions in a good deal of the country’s oil.
At 3:17 pm EDT, prior to Tuesday’s data release, WTI had risen $ 1.15 a day (+ 1.92%) to $ 61.20 – almost an increase of $ 3 from the same last week.
The Brent oil benchmark had risen on the day by $ 1.07 at that time (+ 1.69%) to $ 64.41 – also up almost $ 3 this week.
U.S. oil production rose 100,000 barrels a day to 11 million bpd, according to the Energy Information Administration.
The API reported an increase in gasoline inventories of 3.9 million barrels for the week ended February 12 – after an increase of 4.810 million barrels in the previous week. Analysts had expected construction of 1.397 million barrels for the week.
Distillate stocks fell by 3.5 billion barrels in the week, after falling 487,000 barrels last week.
Filling levels of the Enbridge tanks in southern Cushing on Friday, February 12.
Cushing’s inventories fell by 3.00 million barrels. Last week, inventories held at Cushing decreased by 1.378 million barrels. “Under Tuesday’s measure, Enbridge’s stock has dropped more than 2 million barrels since Friday, February 5,” Dan Schnurr, co-founder of Geospatial Insight, told Oilprice.
After the data was released at 4:40 pm EDT, the WTI benchmark was trading at $ 61.25, while Brent oil was trading at $ 64.45.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.ocm
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