The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported an accumulation of crude inventories of 2.562 billion barrels for the week ending Jan. 15.
Analysts had predicted an inventory draw of 1.167 million barrels for the week.
The previous week, the API reported a draw of 5.821 billion barrels of oil inventories, after analysts had predicted a draw of 2.266 billion barrels.
Oil prices mixed Wednesday ahead of the data release, with WTI on the rise and Brent on the down. A widespread blockade in China that has kidnapped millions of residents out of concern over rising coronavirus cases there, the IEA’s dire prospects for oil demand, a slow global deployment of the coronavirus vaccine that has been plagued by technical problems and reports of adverse effects and persistent stimulus in the United States, as investors dream of increased economic activity and are encouraged to sink money into riskier efforts, such as oil, which contributed to a muddy water effect for merchandise.
An hour before the release of Wednesday’s data, the WTI had risen $ 0.30 a day (+ 0.57%) to $ 53.28, $ 0.015 more modest than last week.
The Brent crude benchmark, on the other hand, had fallen $ 0.05 (-0.09%) at the time to $ 56.55, a drop of $ 0.70 a week.
According to the latest data provided by the Energy Information Administration, US oil production has stagnated at 11.0 million barrels per day, and a significant increase in northern oil production is unlikely. -American, while stocks remain high, above the few million barrels that could be corrected.
The API reported an accumulation of gasoline inventories of 1.129 million barrels for the week ending Jan. 15, compared to construction of 1.876 million barrels the previous week. Analysts expected a construction of 2.771 million barrels for the week.
Finishing inventory constructions for the week are distillates, which saw an increase of 816,000 barrels during the week, which added to last week’s increase of 4,433 million barrels, while inventories of Cushing recorded the only decline this week, with a fall of 4.285 billion barrels.
At 4:34 p.m. EDT, the WTI benchmark was trading at $ 53.28, while Brent crude was trading at $ 55.97.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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