• 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
  • 4 hours GREEN NEW DEAL = BLIZZARD OF LIES
  • 7 days If hydrogen is the answer, you're asking the wrong question
  • 1 day How Far Have We Really Gotten With Alternative Energy
  • 11 days Biden's $2 trillion Plan for Insfrastructure and Jobs
Zainab Calcuttawala

Zainab Calcuttawala

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 Info

Oil Gains After API Reports Unexpected Fall In U.S. Crude Stocks

American crude oil supplies have plunged by 3.8 million barrels this week, according to the American Petroleum Institute (API) report released on Tuesday.

This is a variance of almost 6 million barrels from what experts polled by Zero Hedge had anticipated: a 2.1 million increase in crude supplies.

This week’s draw comes as a welcome surprise to oil markets after last week’s EIA data showed a massive build of 4.9 million barrels.

West Texas intermediate prices are up $0.48 to $50.77 after the report was released.

Supplies in Cushing, Oklahoma, saw a 1.96 million barrel drop – the biggest withdrawal since February 2014 - slightly larger than the 1.4 million draw that analysts had expected.

Gasoline supplies increased by 929,000 barrels, while distillates fell by 2.3 million barrels.

Tomorrow’s report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), which often contains widely different figures, will either confirm or deny the API’s findings.

Torbjorn Tornqvist, the CEO of the Singapore-based commodities trader Gunvor Group, said he “doubts prices can go much higher,” which caused WTI prices to show a little weakness until the API report hit the press.

“People are stepping back and saying, what next? OPEC has to prove it’s really going to do something. They’ve talked the talk, now they’ve got to walk the walk,” Michael Hiley, head of OTC energy trading at New York-based LPS Futures, told Bloomberg over the phone, adding that "he wouldn’t be surprised to see us continue this choppy-type price action and go nowhere."

At the time of the report’s writing, Brent stood up $0.16 at $51.68 since markets opened Tuesday morning.

ADVERTISEMENT

In better days, the draw might have caused numbers to spike and stay there—at least until Wednesday’s EIA report confirmed or denied the findings.

By Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:



Join the discussion | Back to homepage



Leave a comment
  • Amvet on October 19 2016 said:
    Why not write an article about the totally corrupt marketing system?

    Supply and demand have nothing to do with markets.
    Cash rich banks and funds use leverage of up to 100 (or more) to buy what they cannot use and sell what they do not own.

    Could you design a more corrupt (and profitable for the few) system ???

    Amvet

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