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The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a significant drop in crude oil inventories of 8.01 million barrels for the week ending October 30.
Analysts had forecast an inventory build of 890,000 barrels.
In the previous week, the API reported a surprise increase in oil inventories of 4.577 million barrels, after analysts had forecast a drop of 1.11 million barrels.
Oil prices rose Tuesday afternoon ahead of the release of API data in the run-up to the US elections. Bearish factors this week include an increase in oil production in OPEC producer Libya, the resolution of the latest storm that has disrupted oil and gas production on the US Gulf Coast. last week and additional blockades in Europe.
In the run-up to Tuesday’s data release at 2:07 pm EDT, WTI was up $ 0.97 (+ 2.64%) to $ 37.77, roughly $ 2 a barrel for the week. The benchmark Brent crude index was up $ 0.89 on the day at the time (+ 2.28%) to $ 39.86, roughly $ 1.50 less on the week.
Oil production in the United States increased last week, closing the gap between this week’s production and this year’s all-time high at 2.0 million barrels per day. US oil production currently stands at 11.1 million bpd, according to the Energy Information Administration.
The API reported a surprising increase in gasoline inventories of 2.45 million barrels of gasoline for the week ended October 27, compared with the increase of 2.252 million barrels the previous week. Analysts had expected a drop of 871,000 barrels for the week.
Distillate inventories fell 577,000 barrels during the week, compared to last week’s 5,333 million barrel draw, while Cushing’s inventories increased by 981,000 barrels.
At 4:54 pm EDT, the benchmark WTI was trading at $ 38.10 while Brent crude was trading at $ 40.11.
By Julianne Geiger for Oil Moderno
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