The United States Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a draw of 1.366 million barrels of crude oil on Wednesday, falling short of what experts predicted would be a 3.1-million barrel decrease in US crude oil supplies.
Last week, crude oil inventories reported by the EIA decreased by 1.4 million barrels, but still represented "historically high levels for this time of year," an official document read.
Tuesday's American Petroleum Institute (API) figures said crude inventories increased by 2.35 million barrels, once gain contradicting the EIA's numbers, but also defying its own forecasts.
The decrease suggests a greater demand for oil in the United States, according to the source's analysis.
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Last week's API report said supplies of the unrefined substance experienced a 5.1 million barrel drop - the largest such event since December.
The market responded to the decrease and Brent oil prices almost hit $50 a barrel - a seven month high.
On June 2nd, the barrel price of oil reached $50.10 cents as the OPEC meeting commenced in Vienna, according to NASDAQ's estimates.
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Gasoline inventories also faced a draw of 1.492 million barrels after enjoying a two million barrel EIA-reported increase during the week ending on May 27th.
The agency's monthly report released earlier this week said many of the U.S.' major energy producing states saw slightly lower production rates during May, including Texas and North Dakota. Offshore drilling sites in the Gulf of Mexico represented a notable exception, which saw a month-over-month increase of 4.1 percent in crude oil production.
By Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com
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Zainab Calcuttawala is an American journalist based in Morocco. She completed her undergraduate coursework at the University of Texas at Austin (Hook’em) and reports on… More
Comments
There is a consistent inverse relationship between what is speculated and what is released.
When I looked into it a couple of years ago, all you could find was each "poll" passing the buck saying they "...got their information from XYZ...". There was a total lack of accountability and ownership of their sources.
It only makes sense that there is corruption to manipulate the data released. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck...