Disappointing Crude Draw Threatens Shaky Oil Rally

The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a draw in crude oil inventories of 1.622 million barrels for the week ending August 20, bringing the total 2021 crude draw so far to more than 58 million barrels, using API data.

Analysts had expected a loss of 2.367 million barrels for the week.

In the previous week, the API reported a draw in oil inventories of 1.13 million barrels—a loss smaller than the 1.259 million barrel draw that analysts had predicted.

Oil prices began to rise on Monday and continued on Tuesday, staunching the bleeding from the previous seven-day streak of losses as concerns about demand began to deescalate.

WTI gained more than 3% on Tuesday afternoon leading up to the data release.

At 3:20 p.m. EST, WTI was trading at $67.75 a more than $1 gain on the week. Brent crude was trading up 3.58% for the day at $71.21.

While U.S. crude oil stocks continue their decline, U.S. oil production rose for the second week in a row to  11.4 million bpd—an increase of 100,000 bpd for the week.

The API reported a draw in gasoline inventories of 985,000 barrels for the week ending August 20—compared to the previous week's 1.1979-million-barrel draw.

Distillate stocks saw a decrease in inventories this week of 245,000 barrels for the week, compared to last week's 502,000-barrel increase.

Cushing inventories fell this week by 485,000 barrels, after last week's 1.735-million-barrel decrease.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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