The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported on Tuesday a build in crude oil inventories of 1.141 million barrels for the week ending December 4.
Analysts had predicted an inventory draw of 1.514 million barrels for the week.
In the previous week, the API reported a build in oil inventories of 4.146-million barrels, after analysts had predicted draw instead, of 2.358 million barrels.
Brent crude was slightly up on Tuesday afternoon before the data release, but WTI was trading down. Oil prices remain under pressure from extended lockdowns in many places in the United States, while crude inventories in the United States are still high for this time of year.
In the runup to Tuesday’s data release, at 1:27 p.m. EDT, WTI had fallen by $0.09 (-0.20%) to $45.67 up roughly $1 per barrel on the week. The Brent crude benchmark had risen—just slightly—on the day by $0.07 at that time (+0.20%) to $48.89—up about $1.50 per barrel on the week.
U.S. oil production was up 100,000 bpd for the week ending November 27, at 11.1 million bpd, according to the Energy Information Administration—2.0 million bpd lower than the all-time high of 13.1 million bpd reached in March.
The API reported a large build in gasoline inventories of 6.442 million barrels of gasoline for the week ending December 4—compared to the previous week’s 3.402-million-barrel build. Analysts had expected a 2.933-million-barrel build for the week.
Distillate inventories were up by 2.316 million barrels for the week, compared to last week’s 334,000-barrel increase, while Cushing inventories fell by 1.845 million barrels.
At 4:34 p.m. EDT, the WTI benchmark was trading at $45.64, while Brent crude was trading at $48.89.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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