The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported Tuesday a large draw of crude inventories of 4,045 million barrels for the week ended Aug. 27, bringing the total crude oil 2021 so far will exceed 62 million barrels, using API data.
Analysts had expected a loss of 2.383 billion barrels for the week.
The previous week, the API reported a draw of 1,622 million barrels of oil inventories, a loss less than the 2,367 million barrels that analysts had predicted.
Oil prices fell on Tuesday until a critical OPEC meeting on Wednesday that will essentially decide the short-term fate of the oil market. OPEC will review the merits of its plan, which calls for 400,000 barrels of oil production a day to be returned to the market every month.
WTI fell 0.59% on Tuesday afternoon until data release.
At 12:28 pm EST, WTI was trading at $ 68.80, a gain of $ 1 a week. Brent crude traded 0.56% a day at $ 73.00.
While U.S. crude stockpiles continue to decline, U.S. oil production remained at 11.4 million bpd for the second consecutive week.
The API reported an accumulation of gasoline inventories from 2.711 million barrels for the week ending Aug. 27, compared to the previous week’s 985,000 barrel draw.
Inventories of distillates experienced a decline in inventories this week 1,961 million barrels during the week, compared to a decrease of 245,000 barrels last week.
Cushing inventories rose this week 2,128 million barrels, after falling 485,000 barrels last week.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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