Crude oil inventories in the United States increased this week by 1.024 million barrels, the American Petroleum Institute (API) data showed on Tuesday.
Analysts were expecting a slight decline in U.S. crude-oil inventories from the previous week, with data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) due on Wednesday. Average analyst estimates were for a 300,000-barrel decline for the week ending June 9, though forecasts ranged from a draw of 2.5 million barrels to a build of 2 million barrels.
The total number of barrels of crude oil gained so far this year is more than 39 million barrels.
For the week to June 9, the EIA reported an inventory decline of 500,000 barrels, compared with a build of 4.5 million barrels for the previous week.
On Monday, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that it has sold another 1.9 million barrels of crude the previous week from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), for the 11th consecutive weekly drop in the stockpile to a 40-year low of 352 million barrels.
The price of WTI and Brent were both trading up on Tuesday in the run-up to the data release, latching onto a Federal Reserve rate hike decision scheduled for Wednesday afternoon EST.
By 4:40 p.m. EST, WTI was trading up 3.04%, at $69.16 per barrel, while Brent crude was trading up 3.06% at $74.04 shortly after the data release.
Gasoline inventories rose 2.075 million barrels. Distillate inventories rose 1.394 million barrels.
Inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, rose by 1.5020 million barrels, similar to last week.
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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