The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a build this week for crude oil of 736,000 barrels, while analysts predicted a draw of 1.2 million barrels.
The small build comes as the Department of Energy released 7.7 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves in Week Ending June 10.
U.S. crude inventories have shed some 74 million barrels since the start of 2021 and about 16 million barrels since the start of 2020, according to API data.
In the week prior, the API reported a build in crude oil inventories of 1.845 million barrels after analysts had predicted a draw of 1.8 million barrels.
Oil prices were particularly volatile on Tuesday, with OPEC reporting that May production was not only lower than its quota, but lower than April. Typically, this would result in a large price spike as the market contemplates the likelihood that OPEC is fresh out of spare capacity. But high inflation, a lack of spare refining capacity, and China's Covid battle has kept a lid on the gains.
WTI was trading down 0.22% on Tuesday at $120.70 per barrel on the day at 2:20 p.m. ET—up almost $0.60 per barrel on the week. Brent crude was trading up 0.01% on the day at $122.30—and up nearly $1.20 per barrel on the week.
U.S. crude oil production stagnated at 11.9 million bpd for the fourth week in a row for the week ending June 3—a 1.2 million barrels per day decrease from pre-pandemic times.
This week, the API reported a draw in gasoline inventories of 2.159 million barrels for the week ending June 10, compared to the previous week's 1.821-million-barrel build.
Distillate stocks saw an inventory rise of 234,000 million barrels for the week, compared to last week's 3.376-million-barrel increase.
Cushing saw a decrease of 1.067 million barrels this week. Cushing inventories slipped to 23.441 million barrels in the week prior, as of June 03, according to EIA data—down by more than half from 59.2 million barrels at the start of 2021, and down from 37.3 million barrels at the end of 2021.