The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported on Tuesday an extraction of crude oil stocks of 5.821 million barrels for the week ending January 8.
Analysts predicted an inventory extraction of 2.266 million barrels for the week.
In the previous week, API reported an extraction of oil stocks of 1.663 million barrels, after analysts predicted an extraction of 1.271 million barrels.
Both Brent and WTI rose on Tuesday afternoon before the release of the data, still backed by Saudi Arabia’s generous bid last week to cut alone – and voluntarily – another million barrels a day from oil production. in February and March.
And even though oil prices are now at an 11-month high, coronavirus-inspired blockages continue to overwhelm any hope of a return to oil demand, diminishing oil price increases.
One hour before Tuesday’s release, the WTI rose $ 0.90 that day (+ 1.72%) to $ 53.14, up more than $ 3 a barrel a week. The Brent crude benchmark rose that day by $ 0.89 at that time (+ 1.60%) to $ 56.55 – up nearly $ 3 a barrel a week.
US oil production remained at 11.0 million bpd for the fourth consecutive week, according to the latest data provided by the Energy Information Administration. This is still millions of barrels below the maximum level of 13.1 million bpd reached in March 2020.
API reported an increase in gasoline stocks of 1.876 million barrels for the week ending January 8 – compared to the construction of 5.473 million barrels in the previous week. Analysts expected a construction of 2.695 million barrels for the week.
Distillate inventories also rose another 4.433 million barrels for the week from 7.136 million barrels last week, while Cushing’s stocks fell 232,000 barrels this week.
At 16:34 EDT, the WTI benchmark was trading at $ 53.16, while Brent crude was trading at $ 56.56.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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