The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a draw in crude oil inventories of 5.437 million barrels for the week ending September 10.
It exceeded the analyst expectations who had estimated a loss of 3.903 million barrels for the week.
In the previous week, the API reported a draw in oil inventories of 2.882 million barrels-a smaller loss than the 3.832 million barrel draw that analysts had predicted.
Oil prices fell on Tuesday leading up to the data release-despite the volatile combination of IEA's expectations for a strong rebound in global oil demand starting next month and production disruptions due to Hurricanes Ida and Nicholas.
WTI fell 0.30% on Tuesday afternoon leading up to the data release.
At 1:55 p.m. EST, WTI was trading at $70.24-a nearly $1 gain on the week. Brent crude was trading down 0.20% for the day at $73.43.
Oil inventories have shed more than 70 million barrels so far this year API data shows, and EIA suggests inventories are 6% under the five-year average for this time of year.
For this week specifically, oil inventories were affected significantly by a sharp decrease in U.S. oil production, which fell 1.5 million bpd last week-the sharpest single-week decline since the EIA began tracking data-to just 10 million bpd as Hurricane Ida continued to shut in oil producers in the Gulf of Mexico.
The API reported a draw in gasoline inventories of 2.761 million barrels for the week ending September 10-compared to the previous week's 6.414-barrel build.
Distillate stocks saw a decrease in inventories this week of 2.888 million barrels for the week, compared to last week's 3.748-million-barrel decrease.
Cushing inventories fell this week by 1.345 million barrels after last week's 1.794-million-barrel increase.
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
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