The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a draw on crude inventories of 5.821 million barrels for the week ending Jan. 8.
Analysts had forecast an inventory draw of 2.266 billion barrels for the week.
The previous week, the API reported an oil inventory draw of 1.663 billion barrels, after analysts had predicted a draw of 1.271 million barrels.
Both Brent and WTI woke up on Tuesday afternoon ahead of the release of data, still driven by Saudi Arabia’s generous bid last week to individually and voluntarily cut one million barrels a day of oil production in February and in March.
And while oil prices are now at an 11-month high, coronavirus-inspired blockades continue to drag on any hope of a rise in oil demand, which slows oil price gains.
An hour before the release of Tuesday’s data, WTI had risen $ 0.90 a day (+ 1.72%) to $ 53.14, up more than $ 3 a barrel a week. The Brent crude benchmark had risen on the day by $ 0.89 at the time (+ 1.60%) to $ 56.55, nearly $ 3 a barrel a week.
U.S. oil production remained stable at 11.0 million bpd for the fourth consecutive week, according to the latest data provided by the Energy Information Administration. That’s still millions of barrels below the maximum 13.1 million bpd reached in March 2020.
The API reported an accumulation of gasoline inventories of 1.876 million barrels for the week ending Jan. 8, compared to construction of 5.473 million barrels the previous week. Analysts expected a construction of 2.95 billion barrels for the week.
Distillate inventories also experienced another large increase of 4.433 billion barrels during the week, compared to last week’s increase of 7.136 million barrels, while Cushing’s inventories fell 232,000 barrels this week. .
At 4:34 p.m. EDT, the WTI benchmark was trading at $ 53.16, while Brent crude was trading at $ 56.56.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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