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The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a decline in crude oil inventories of 5.821 million barrels for the week ending Jan.8.
Analysts had predicted an inventory drawdown of 2.266 million barrels for the week.
The previous week, API reported an oil inventory drawdown of 1.663 million barrels, after analysts predicted a drawdown of 1.271 million barrels.
Brent and WTI were both up on Tuesday afternoon before the data was released, still supported by Saudi Arabia’s generous offer last week to single-handedly – and voluntarily – cut another million barrels per day of its oil production in February and March.
And even though oil prices are now at an 11-month high, coronavirus-inspired lockdowns continue to weigh down hopes of a rebound in oil demand, dampening oil price gains.
An hour before Tuesday’s data release, WTI was up $ 0.90 on the day (+ 1.72%) to $ 53.14, up more than $ 3 a barrel on the week. The benchmark Brent index had risen that day from $ 0.89 at the time (+ 1.60%) to $ 56.55, or nearly $ 3 a barrel for the week.
US oil production held steady at 11.0 million bpd for the fourth week in a row, according to the latest data from the Energy Information Administration. That’s still millions of barrels below the peak of 13.1 million bpd reached in March 2020.
API reported an increase in gasoline inventories of 1.876 million barrels for the week ending Jan. 8, compared to the construction of 5.473 million barrels the week before. Analysts expected a build of 2.695 million barrels for the week.
Distillate inventories also saw another big increase of 4.433 million barrels for the week, from the 7.136 million barrels increase last week, while Cushing’s inventories fell this week by 232,000 barrels. .
At 4:34 p.m. EDT, the benchmark WTI was trading at $ 53.16, while Brent crude was trading at $ 56.56.
By Julianne Geiger for OilUSD
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