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Crude oil inventories last week fell 900,000 barrels, the Energy Information Administration reported, adding that inventories were 6% off the five-year average for this time of year.
The report comes a day after the American Petroleum Institute reported a construction estimated at 3.9 million barrels of crude oil and compared to a more moderate construction of 1.9 million bpd than the EIA. reported the previous week.
Analysts expected an even more modest inventory for last week, at 400,000 barrels.
In gasoline, authorities reported a 1.7 million barrels drop in inventories for the week ending March 26. This compared to a small build of 200,000 barrels the week before.
Gasoline production rose on the week to 9.3 million bpd, from 8.6 million bpd a week earlier.
In middle distillates, the EIA estimated a build-up of 2.5 million barrels for last week, compared to a build of 3.8 million barrels for the previous week.
Distillate production averaged 4.7 million bpd last week, up from 4.6 million bpd the week before.
Oil prices are above $ 60 ahead of the April OPEC + meetings, which will take place tomorrow and Friday. The market has more or less priced a deal planned to postpone current production cuts into May and June, even as Russia gets the small production increase it has requested in response to higher seasonal demand in the country.
The global demand situation remains mixed, however. Covid-19 cases are on the rise across much of the United States and Europe, casting a shadow over past expectations that, as vaccinations multiply, cases will start to drop steadily.
This added further uncertainty in an already uncertain market, adding to the volatility of oil prices.
At the time of writing, Brent is trading at $ 63.82 per barrel, with West Texas Intermediate at $ 60.66 per barrel.
By Irina Slav for Oil Octobers
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