The U.S. Petroleum Institute (API) reported a higher-than-expected attraction this week for crude oil of 3.479 million barrels, compared to analysts’ estimates of 1.167 million barrels.
Crude oil inventories in the United States have fallen by about 73.5 million barrels since the beginning of 2021 and about 17.5 million barrels since the beginning of 2020.
The previous week, the API reported a surprising increase in crude oil inventories of 4.784 million barrels, after analysts forecast an increase of 2.167 million barrels.
Analysts and traders polled by the Wall Street Journal earlier today expected a drop in US oil stocks by 200,000 and gasoline stocks by 300,000 barrels.
Of the 11 analysts surveyed by the WSJ, seven predict a decline and four predict an increase in crude oil inventories.
They also expect distillates to drop by up to 1.5 million barrels.
Crude oil prices rose on Tuesday after the latest signal from the European Union that it is preparing to impose an oil embargo on Russia.
Covid’s blockade in China has continued to push down on benchmarks, temporarily reversing rising prices, but the potential for growth remains significant, especially after BP CEO Bernard Looney told Reuters he expects Russian oil deficits to double from 1 million barrels per day to 2 million barrels per day. month.
WTI traded down 2.51% at $ 102.50 a barrel during the day at 16:30 EST – and fell by approximately 2% during the week. Brent oil was trading at 3.63% during the day at $ 105.90 per barrel, down 2.31% from Monday.
The API also reported a reduction in gasoline stocks of 4.50 million barrels for the week ending April 29 – after 3.91 million barrels from the previous week.
Distillate inventories decreased by 4.457 million barrels per week compared to an increase of 431,000 barrels last week.
Cushing reported 0.978 million barrels this week. According to EIA data from April 22, cushing stocks rose to 27.450 million barrels – a decline of 59.2 million barrels in early 2021 and a decline of 37.3 million barrels in late 2021.
By Julian Geiger for Oilprice.com
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