Large Crude Inventory Draw Bolsters Prices

The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a large crude oil inventory draw of 7.55 million barrels for the week ending June 20, but still coming in over analyst expectations of a 2.891-million barrel drawdown in inventories.

Last week, the API reported a draw of 812,000 barrels. A day later, the EIA estimated that US inventories had drawn down by 3.1 million barrels.

The net build is still 26.69 million barrels for the 26-week reporting period so far this year, using API data.

(Click to enlarge)

Oil prices were up earlier on Tuesday as the general expectation was for a drawdown in crude oil inventories in the runup to the data release. Another headwind for higher prices is the continuing tensions in the Middle East.

At 12:32pm EST, WTI was trading up by $0.13 (+0.22%) at $58.03-roughly $4.00 over last week's levels. Brent was trading up $0.24 (+0.37%) at $64.42-about $2.00 more than last week's figures.

The API this week reported a 3.17 million-barrel draw in gasoline inventories for week ending June 20. Analysts estimated a build in gasoline inventories of 217,000 barrels for the week.

Distillate inventories rose by 160,000 barrels for the week, while inventories at Cushing fell by 1.26 million barrels.

US crude oil production as estimated by the Energy Information Administration showed that production for the week ending June 14 fell again this week to 12.2 million bpd, a 200,000 dip from the all-time high of 12.4 million barrels per day.  

The U.S. Energy Information Administration report on crude oil inventories is due to be released on Wednesday at 10:30a.m. EST.

By 4:40pm EST, WTI was trading at $57.87 and Brent was trading at $64.30

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:

• The West Just Made A Big Mistake In Middle East
  
• Is Bakken Oil Production Set For An Unexpected Drop?
  
• This Is How The U.S. Plans To Cripple Iran's Economy