Data from the American Petroleum Institute showed on Tuesday that crude oil inventories in the United States fell this week by 3.939 million barrels, with analysts expecting a drawdown of 1 million barrels.
The total number of barrels of crude oil gained this year so far remains more than 34 million barrels.
This week, the SPR stocks fell for the fifth consecutive week, losing 2 million barrels for the week to 364.9 million barrels – the lowest amount of crude oil in the SPR since October 1983.
US production of crude oil fell by 100,000 barrels per day during the week ending April 21, to 12.2 million barrels per day. US production is now 900,000 bpd below the peak seen in March 2020, but 300,000 bpd higher than this time last year.
WTI traded sharply lower on Tuesday in the run-up to the data release, below $72 a barrel as market concerns were renewed about unremarkable industrial data out of China and the possibility of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates again later this week. Factors that could have an impact on global oil demand.
Brent Crude Oil was also trading lower today.
By 3:30 PM EST, WTI was trading down $3.95 (-5.22%) on the day at $71.71 a barrel, losing about $5.40 a barrel over the course of the week. Brent crude was trading down $3.93 (-4.96%) on the day at $75.38 – down about $5.40 a barrel from the same period last week.
WTI was trading at $71.62 shortly after the data was released.
Gasoline inventories increased by 400 thousand barrels after declining 1.919 million barrels in the previous week. Distillate inventories decreased by 1 million barrels, after increasing by 1.693 million barrels in the previous week.
Inventories in Cushing, Oklahoma rose by 700,000 barrels – after rising by 465,000 barrels last week.
By Julian Geiger for Oilprice.com
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