The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated on Tuesday a large crude oil inventory build of 10.485 million barrels for the week ending March 28, as 75% of Americans remain under lockdown in some form or another.
Today's inventory move was expected to be for a much smaller build of 3.997-million-barrels.
In the previous week, the API estimated a surprise draw in crude oil inventories of 1.247-million barrels, while the EIA's estimates were more bearish, reporting a build of 1.6 million barrels for the week.
Oil prices were mixed on Tuesday afternoon prior to the API's data release as the United States settles in for a longer period of social distancing and more states implementing lockdown orders. Meanwhile, traders are still holding onto a smidgeon of hope that there will be some relief coming in the form of a ceasefire to the oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia. Further complicating prices are new national guidelines for how the United States will deal with the coronavirus going forward-a development that will impact the demand for crude.
At 3:24 pm EDT on Tuesday the WTI benchmark was trading up on the day by $0.35 (+1.74%) at $20.44. While up on the day, WTI is still trading down nearly $4 week on week for the second week in a row. The price of a Brent barrel, on the other hand, was trading down on Tuesday, by $0.20 (-0.76%), at $26.22-down by roughly $3 week on week.
The API reported a large build of 6.085 million barrels of gasoline for week ending March 27, after last week's 2.622-million-barrel draw. This week's build compares to analyst expectations for a 1.949-million-barrel build for the week.
Distillate inventories were down, by 4.458 million barrels for the week, compared to last week's 1.90-million-barrel draw, while Cushing inventories rose by 2.926 million barrels.
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US crude oil production as estimated by the Energy Information Administration showed that production for the week ending March 20 slipped back slightly to 13.0 million bpd.
At 4:33 pm EDT, WTI was trading at $20.36 while Brent was trading at $26.17.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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Julianne Geiger is a veteran editor, writer and researcher for Oilprice.com, and a member of the Creative Professionals Networking Group. More