Prices Rally As Crude Oil, Products Draw Down

Crude oil inventories in the United fell this week by 2.675 million barrels, the American Petroleum Institute (API) data showed on Tuesday, with analysts expecting a 2.464 million barrel draw.

The total number of barrels of crude oil gained so far this year is still more than 44 million barrels.

This week, SPR inventory dropped for the third week in a row losing another 1.6 million barrels for the week to reach 368 million barrels—the lowest amount of crude oil in the SPR since October 1983.

U.S. crude oil production rose during the week ending April 7, to 12.3 million bpd. U.S. production is now 800,000 bpd lower than the peak production seen in March 2020, but 500,000 bpd higher than this time last year.

The price of WTI was trading down on Tuesday in the run-up to the data release, but still hovering above $80 per barrel due to OPEC+’s surprise announcement that it plans to cut even more crude oil production—1.6 million bpd—starting in May. Brent crude was also trading down on the day.

By 4:06 p.m. EST, WTI was trading down $0.03 (-0.04%) on the day at $80.80 per barrel, a loss of about $0.70 per barrel on the week. Brent crude was trading down $0.14 (-0.17%) on the day at $84.62—down roughly $.90 per barrel from this same time last week.

WTI was trading at $80.85 shortly after the data release.

Gasoline inventories fell also, by 1 million barrels after building in the week prior by 450,000 barrels. Distillate inventories fell by 1.9 million barrels after decreasing by 1.98 million barrels in the week prior.

Rounding out the inventory losses, inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, decreased by 600,000 barrels—after falling 1.36 million barrels last week.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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