The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a build of 3.947 million barrels of United States crude oil inventories for the week ending February 9, according to the API data. Analysts had expected a smaller build of 2.825 million barrels in crude oil inventories.
Last week, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a build of 1.050 million barrels of crude oil, along with a draw in gasoline inventories of 227,000 barrels.
This week's data paints an uglier picture, with the API reporting not only a higher than expected build for crude oil, but a larger than expected gasoline build of 4.634 million barrels. Analysts had expected a small 1.229-million-barrel build.
The WTI and Brent benchmarks both were a mixed bad on Tuesday with WTI trading down $0.06 (-0.10%) at $59.23, while Brent trading up $0.15 (+0.24%) at $62.74 at 2:19pm EST. Both benchmarks are about $4 under this same time last week, in what has been an ugly week for oil prices. IEA's Oil Market Report, released earlier on Tuesday, painted a grim picture for oil prices that shows US production growth outstripping demand growth-with some investors worried that another 2014 may be soon upon us.
US crude oil production for week ending February 2 is also up, coming in at 10.251 million bpd, yet another new high-and one that is psychologically important as this is the first time weekly US production has ever breached an average of 10 million bpd.
Distillate inventories saw a modest increase this week of 1.1 million barrels. Analysts had forecast a decline of 1.130-million-barrels.
Inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma, site decreased by 2.319 million barrels this week.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration report on oil inventories is due to be released on Wednesday at 10:30. EST.
By 4:36pm EST, the WTI benchmark was trading down 0.62% on the day to $58.92 while Brent was trading down 0.06% on the day at $62.55.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Julianne Geiger is a veteran editor, writer and researcher for Oilprice.com, and a member of the Creative Professionals Networking Group. More