According to data from the American Petroleum Institute (API), crude oil inventories in the United States declined by 2.408 million barrels this week. This follows a decrease of 1.246 million barrels in the previous week.
Analysts had anticipated a smaller draw of 1.467 million barrels in U.S. crude oil inventories. As per API data, the total accumulation of crude oil barrels this year amounts to approximately 36 million, but there has been a net draw of over 8 million barrels since April.
The Department of Energy (DoE) announced on Monday that it has sold an additional 1.4 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in the week ending June 23. This marks the 13th consecutive weekly decline in the stockpile, bringing it to a 40-year low of 348.6 million barrels.
Ahead of the data release, both WTI and Brent crude oil prices were trading higher on Tuesday, although they remained relatively stable compared to a month ago. At 4:09 pm ET, WTI was trading down $1.71 (-2.47%) at $67.66 per barrel, experiencing a $5 per barrel decrease over the week. Brent crude oil, at $72.26 per barrel, was trading down $1.92 (-2.59%).
Following the data release, at 4:39 p.m. EST, WTI crude oil was trading at $67.78 per barrel, experiencing a 2.29% decrease. In parallel, Brent crude was trading at $72.40 per barrel, showing a 1.622.40% decline shortly after the release of the data.
Gasoline inventories experienced a decrease of 2.85 million barrels, reversing the previous week’s build of 2.935 million barrels. Conversely, distillate inventories saw an increase of 777,000 barrels, surpassing the loss of 301,000 barrels in the previous week.
According to EIA data, crude oil production in the United States dropped to 12.2 million barrels per day (bpd) for the week ending June 16. This matches the previous low recorded earlier this year.
Cushing, Oklahoma inventories experienced a 1.45 million barrel increase, following a 50,000 barrel rise in the previous week.
Source : oilprice.com
