Oil Prices Inch Lower After API Reports Crude, Gasoline Build

As oil prices continue to fall, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a mild build of 800,000 barrels of United States crude oil inventories for the week ending June 8, compared to analyst expectations that this week would see a much larger draw in crude oil inventories of 2.744 million barrels.

Last week, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a build of 2.028 million barrels of crude oil.

However, the API reported a surprise buildup in gasoline inventories for week ending June 8 in the amount of 2.33 million barrels. Analysts had expected a much smaller build of 443,000 barrels.

While Nigeria reported diminishing oil exports in the wake of force majeure on Bonny Light oil, both Saudi Arabia and Russia this week reported increased oil production for the month of May, at 10.0 million bpd and 11.09 million bpd respectively, sending mixed signals to the oil market. At 2:48 EDT, the WTI benchmark was trading up on the day on Tuesday afternoon at $66.33 (+0.35%). The Brent benchmark dipped by $0.69 and was trading at $75.77—a 0.90% decrease on the day.

US crude oil production for yet another week for week ending June 01—the most recent data available—increased to 10.800 million bpd, according to the EIA.

Distillate inventories also saw a surprise build this week of 2.1 million barrels, compared to an expected build of a modest 200,000 barrels, while inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma, site fell by 730,000 barrels.

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

By 4:40pm EST, both benchmarks started to slip, with the WTI benchmark trading up 0.17% on the day to $66.21 and Brent trading down 0.94% at $75.74.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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