WTI Eases After API Reports Surprise Build

The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a surprise build this week for crude oil of 2.165 million barrels, while analysts predicted a draw of 467,000 barrels.

The build comes as the Department of Energy released 4.6 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves in Week Ending July 29, to 469.9 million barrels.

U.S. crude inventories have shed some 63 million barrels since the start of 2021, with a 40,000 barrel loss since the start of 2020, according to API data.

In the week prior, the API reported a large draw in crude oil inventories of 4.037 million barrels after analysts had predicted a smaller draw of 1.121 million barrels.

WTI was trading up on Tuesday as OPEC+ revised down its estimate of the crude surplus in the global market for this year. WTI was trading up 1.25% on the day at 2:16 p.m. ET in the runup to the release at $95.06 per barrel—roughly flat on the week. Brent crude was trading up 1.24% on the day at $101.30—a $3 drop on the week.

U.S. crude oil production data for the week ending July 22 rose by 200,000 bpd to 12.1 million bpd, according to the latest EIA data.  

The API also reported a draw in gasoline inventories this week of 204,000 barrels for the week ending July 29, compared to the previous week's 1.06-million-barrel draw.

Distillate stocks saw a draw of 351,000 barrels for the week, compared to last week's 550,000-barrel decrease.

Cushing inventories rose by 653,000 barrels this week. Last week, the API saw a build of 1.09 million barrels. Official EIA Cushing inventories for week ending July 22 was 23.540 million, up from 22.789 in the prior week.

At 4:44 pm, ET, WTI was trading up at $93.91 (+0.02%), with Brent trading down at $99.88 (-0.15%).

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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