API Sees Crude, Product Inventory Builds

The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a build this week for crude oil of 1.035 million barrels, while analysts predicted a bigger build of 2.321 million barrels.

The build comes as the Department of Energy released 6.9 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves in the week ending September 16, leaving the SPR with 427.2 million barrels.

In the week prior, the API reported a build in crude oil inventories of 6.035 million barrels after analysts had predicted a draw of 200,000 barrels.

WTI fell on Tuesday prior to the data release. At 3:16 p.m. ET, WTI was trading down $1.54 (-1.80%) on the day at $84.19 per barrel—a roughly $2 per barrel decrease on the week. Brent crude was trading down $1.40 (-1.52%) on the day at $90.60—a $2 decrease on the week.

U.S. crude oil production data for the week ending September 9 stayed the same for the third week in a row at 12.1 million bpd, according to the latest weekly EIA data.  

The API reported a build in gasoline inventories this week of 3.225 million barrels for the week ending September 16, compared to the previous week's 3.23 million-barrel draw. 

Distillate stocks saw a build of 1.538 million barrels for the week, on top of last week's 1.75-million-barrel increase. 

Cushing inventories were up by 510,000 barrels this week. Last week, the API saw a Cushing increase of 101,000 barrels. Official EIA Cushing inventory for the week ending September 9 was 24.648 million barrels, down from 24.783 million barrels in the prior week.

Oil prices were flat after the release, with WTI trading at $4.19 (-1.80%) and Brent trading at $90.93 (-1.16%).

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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