U.S. crude oil inventories increased by a whopping 14.227 million barrels, according to this week's American Petroleum Institute (API) inventory report published on Tuesday afternoon, pressing down further on already falling prices. The build is the second largest build in U.S. history, according to Zerohedge.
Analysts were anticipating a much more conservative crude oil inventory build of 2.38 million barrels, according to Market Realist.
While reduced OPEC production for January has seemed to support higher oil prices, reports of OPEC's accomplishments have lost some sway in recent weeks in the wake of the American Petroleum Institute and the Energy Information Administration reports, which have both reported weeks of builds for crude oil, along with Baker Hughes, which showed that US drillers are putting rigs into production at rates not seen since mid-2014 before the oil price crash began.
While OPEC is reporting a 91% compliance to the deal reached in November 2016, Baker Hughes reported a 17-rig gain for oil, which followed a 15-rig increase the week prior.
Prior to the API's data release, Brent crude had traded down $0.22 since Friday's rig count release. Brent crude was trading at $54.89 ($55.11 on Friday), while WTI crude traded at $52.03 ($52.83 on Friday).
Related: Oil Prices Fall Ahead Of Inventory Data
The API reported a 2.903-million-barrel build in gasoline inventories, and a 1.373-million-barrel build to distillates.
Supplies at the Cushing, Oklahoma, facility also rose this week by 624,000 barrels.
Last weeks' EIA report showed a crude oil inventory build of 6.5 million barrels, which came a day after the API reported a 5.8-million-barrel build; and a 3.9-million-barrel build to gasoline compared with a 2.9-million-barrel build reported by the API.
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