This week, the American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated the inventory draw for crude oil to be 6.432 million barrels, after analysts predicted a much smaller 3.40 million barrel draw.
U.S. crude inventories shed a total of some 75 million barrels over the course of 2021.
In the previous week, the API reported a draw in oil inventories of 3.09 million barrels after analysts had predicted a draw of 3.233 million barrels.
Oil prices were trading up on Tuesday in the run-up to the data release, after OPEC+ decided on Tuesday to increase its oil production quota by another 400,000 bpd-largely as expected. WTI was trading up 1.60% to $77.30 on the day at 10:45 a.m. EDT, but up $1.30 per barrel on the week. Brent was trading up by 1.58% at $80.23 on the day and up $1.20 on the week.
U.S. oil production has been on a slow but steady climb. For the week ending December 24-the last week for which the Energy Information Administration has provided data-crude oil production in the United States rose to 11.8 million bpd-an increase of 800,000 bpd since the start of the year.
The API reported a large build in gasoline inventories of 7.061 million barrels for the week ending December 31-after the previous week's 319,000 barrel draw.
Distillate stocks saw an increase in inventory of 4.340 million barrels for the week, after last week's 716,000-barrel decrease. Cushing saw a 2.268 million-barrel increase this week.
At 4:36 pm, EST, WTI was trading at $77.07, with Brent trading at $80.07.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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Julianne Geiger is a veteran editor, writer and researcher for Oilprice.com, and a member of the Creative Professionals Networking Group. More
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