A large built-in gasoline inventory that offset a modest draw of crude oil inventories cooled Cool Bulls sentiment in markets Tuesday afternoon
The U.S. Petroleum Institute (API) reported Tuesday a 4.264 million-tonne inventory of crude inventory for the week ending August 14 – a near mirror of last week’s sign figure.
Analysts had forecast a modest inventory drawing of 2,670-million tons.
Last week, the API reported a draw on crude oil inventories of 4,401 million barrels, after analysts had predicted a draw of about half.
Oil prices fell on Tuesday afternoon for the API data release, and just minutes before its release, WTI had fallen by $ 0.33 (-0.77%) to $ 42.56. Brent’s Edge benchmark had dropped by $ 0.30 (-0.66%) to $ 45.07, even though OPEC this week revealed that its July total rate of return was almost as good as it could get.
Traders are still learning in the run-up to one of the inventory reports, and this week is also further complicated by the planned OPEC meeting, although most analysts agree that the meeting is likely to prove a bit uneventful.
Oil production in the United States now appears to be leveling off after falling from a high of 13.1 million bpd on March 13 to 10.7 million bpd on August 7, according to the Energy Information Administration – the loss that added to OPEC’s production cuts.
The API reported construction of 4,991 million tonnes of gasoline for the week ending August 14 – compared to last week’s 1.310 million barrel drawings. This week’s construction is not what analysts had expected, which was a draw of 1,057 million barrels for the week.
Distilled inventories were down by 964,000 barrels for the week, compared to drawing 2.949 million barrels from last week, while Cushing’s inventory fell by a modest 590,000 barrels.
At 4:33 pm EDT traded WTI at $ 42.58 while Brent traded at $ 45.09.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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