• 3 minutes e-car sales collapse
  • 6 minutes America Is Exceptional in Its Political Divide
  • 11 minutes Perovskites, a ‘dirt cheap’ alternative to silicon, just got a lot more efficient
  • 2 hours GREEN NEW DEAL = BLIZZARD OF LIES
  • 40 mins How Far Have We Really Gotten With Alternative Energy
  • 11 hours If hydrogen is the answer, you're asking the wrong question
  • 4 days Oil Stocks, Market Direction, Bitcoin, Minerals, Gold, Silver - Technical Trading <--- Chris Vermeulen & Gareth Soloway weigh in
  • 6 days The European Union is exceptional in its political divide. Examples are apparent in Hungary, Slovakia, Sweden, Netherlands, Belarus, Ireland, etc.
  • 24 hours Biden's $2 trillion Plan for Insfrastructure and Jobs
  • 5 days "What’s In Store For Europe In 2023?" By the CIA (aka RFE/RL as a ruse to deceive readers)
Oil Markets Await a Shift in Sentiment

Oil Markets Await a Shift in Sentiment

Oil prices remain rangebound ahead…

Iron Ore Futures Take a Hit as Chinese Demand Wavers

Iron Ore Futures Take a Hit as Chinese Demand Wavers

Iron ore prices have suffered…

API: Drop in US Crude Oil Stocks, But Surprise Gasoline Build

U.S. crude oil inventories are down just over 1 million barrels for the week ended 12 August, according to the weekly American Petroleum Institute (API) report, but U.S. gasoline inventories are up over 2 million barrels in the biggest increase in six months.

Cushing crude inventories were down 680,000 barrels.

Earlier today, crude oil rallied to a one-month high, but slid back down following the release of the API data. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for September delivery closed at US$46.58 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, but was down to US$46.41 in electronic trading at the time of writing.

Analysts expectations, as carried by S&P Global Platts, were for a 200,000-barrel drawdown on U.S. crude oil inventories, with the API figures coming at roughly half that. But for gas, the API figures were unexpected. Analysts were tapping a 1.8-million-barrel drop in gasoline inventories, while the API is showing a nearly 2.2-million-barrel increase. Distillates were also up significantly over the week, with the API data showing a 2.4-million-barrel build.

This should contribute to further market volatility, though Zero Hedge notes that oil is primarily tracking the dollar right now and not paying as much attention to its own fundamentals.

More attention will be on the official inventory data coming tomorrow at 10:30am (EST) from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), which could contradict API data, as has been a recent trend.

Last week, the API reported the opposite—the biggest crude oil inventory build in three months, and a draw on gasoline stocks. That API report had crude inventories up 2.09 million barrels, and gasoline stockpiles down 3.9 million barrels, with distillates at a 1.5-million barrel draw.

The EIA last week reported a 1.1-million-barrel rise in commercial crude oil inventories for the week to August 5, with the total reaching 523.6 million barrels. The week before that also saw a 1.4-million-barrel build.

The API data should be good news for oil prices, but the surprise gasoline and distillates build skews the picture.

ADVERTISEMENT

By Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:



Join the discussion | Back to homepage



Leave a comment

Leave a comment

EXXON Mobil -0.35
Open57.81 Trading Vol.6.96M Previous Vol.241.7B
BUY 57.15
Sell 57.00
Oilprice - The No. 1 Source for Oil & Energy News