RE:API Crude oil inventories in the United States increased this week by 3.026 million barrels, the American Petroleum Institute (API) data showed on Wednesday, after falling by 4.382 million barrels in the week prior.
Analysts were expecting a much smaller build of 200,000 barrels in U.S. crude-oil inventories. The total number of barrels of crude oil gained so far this year is nearly 35 million barrels, according to API data, although the net draw in crude inventories since April is more than 12 million barrels.
On Monday, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that it sold another 400,000 barrels of crude in the week ending July 7 from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), for the 15th consecutive weekly drop in the stockpile to a new 40-year low of 346.8 million barrels.
The price of WTI and Brent were both trading up on Tuesday in the run-up to the data release, with the market finally strapping on the possibility that we are indeed on the cusp of a bullish cycle, with estimations for a supply deficit this half of the year.
By 4:10 p.m. EST, WTI was trading up 2.62%, at $74.90 per barrel—up $3 per barrel since last Tuesday, while Brent crude was trading up 2.29% at $79.47.
Gasoline inventories rose by 1.004 million barrels after rising by 1.615 million barrels in the week prior. Distillate inventories rose by 2.908 million barrels, on top of the 604,000 barrel build in the week prior.
Crude oil production in the United States rose to 12.4 million bpd for the week ending June 30, according to EIA data, up 200,000 bpd from the start of the year.
Inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, fell by 2.150 barrels, after rising 289,000 barrels in the previous week.