Oil Prices Rise On Large Crude Inventory Draw

The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a draw in crude oil inventories of 5.437 million barrels for the week ending September 10.

It exceeded the analyst expectations who had estimated a loss of 3.903 million barrels for the week.

In the previous week, the API reported a draw in oil inventories of 2.882 million barrels—a smaller loss than the 3.832 million barrel draw that analysts had predicted.

Oil prices fell on Tuesday leading up to the data release—despite the volatile combination of IEA’s expectations for a strong rebound in global oil demand starting next month and production disruptions due to Hurricanes Ida and Nicholas.

WTI fell 0.30% on Tuesday afternoon leading up to the data release.

At 1:55 p.m. EST, WTI was trading at $70.24—a nearly $1 gain on the week. Brent crude was trading down 0.20% for the day at $73.43.

Oil inventories have shed more than 70 million barrels so far this year API data shows, and EIA suggests inventories are 6% under the five-year average for this time of year.

For this week specifically, oil inventories were affected significantly by a sharp decrease in U.S. oil production, which fell 1.5 million bpd last week—the sharpest single-week decline since the EIA began tracking data—to just 10 million bpd as Hurricane Ida continued to shut in oil producers in the Gulf of Mexico.

The API reported a draw in gasoline inventories of 2.761 million barrels for the week ending September 10—compared to the previous week’s 6.414-barrel build.

Distillate stocks saw a decrease in inventories this week of 2.888 million barrels for the week, compared to last week’s 3.748-million-barrel decrease.

Cushing inventories fell this week by 1.345 million barrels after last week’s 1.794-million-barrel increase.