Crude Prices Slip After API Reports Crude Draw, Gasoline Build

As oil prices continues to fall, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a draw of 2.028 million barrels of United States crude oil inventories for the week ending June 1, compared to analyst expectations that this week would see a smaller draw in crude oil inventories of -1.824 million barrels.

Last week, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a build of 1.001 million barrels of crude oil.

However, the API reported a large buildup in gasoline inventories for week ending June 1 in the amount of 3.759 million barrels. Analysts had expected a much smaller build of 587,000 barrels.

Both benchmarks were trading down significantly week on week on Tuesday afternoon as reports surfaced that the United States had quietly asked Saudi Arabia and other OPEC nations to raise oil production by 1 million bpd. Combined with hedge funds boosting their short positions, those two catalysts outweighed concerns that any Iran and Venezuela production losses would overtighten crude oil supplies.

WTI was trading up on the day 0.88% (+$0.57) at $65.32 per barrel at 4:00pm EDT, while Brent was down on the day -0.39% (-$0.29) at $75.00 per barrel.

US crude oil production for yet another week for week ending May 25—the most recent data available—increased to 10.769 million bpd, according to the EIA.

Distillate inventories saw a small draw this week of 871,000 barrels, compared to an expected build of 784,000, while inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma, site fell by 1.038 million barrels.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration report on crude oil inventories is due to be released on Wednesday at 10:30am EDT.

By 4:39pm EST, the WTI benchmark was trading up 0.96% on the day to $65.37 while Brent was trading down 0.40% at $74.99. Both benchmarks are dollars below last week’s prices.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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