By Julianne Geiger
The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a major build of 9.75 million barrels of United States crude oil inventories for the week ending October 5, compared to analyst expectations that this week would see a much smaller build in crude oil inventories of 2.62 million barrels. The build is the largest build since February 2017, according to Zerohedge.
Last week, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a build of 907,000 barrels of crude oil.
The API reported a build in gasoline inventories as well for week ending October 5 in the amount of 3.4 million barrels. Analysts had predicted a draw of 42,000 barrels in gasoline inventories for the week.
Oil prices were down in afternoon trading prior to the release of the API data on inventories, and not just by a hair. At 4:00pm EDT, WTI was trading down 2.77% (-$2.08) at $72.88, a more than $2 slip from this time last week.
WTIis still trading nearly $3 per barrel higher than three weeks ago as the markets come to terms with the expected loss of supply from Iran and the declining oil production in Venezuela.
The Brent crude benchmark saw similar activity on Wednesday, trading down 2.68% (-$2.28) at $82.72—also roughly $2 under last week.
Inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma, site increased this week by 2.3 million barrels, after last week saw the largest build of Cushing inventory since March 2018.
US crude oil production as estimated by the Energy Information Administration was a neutral factor this week, holding fast at 11.1 million bpd for the week ending September 28, largely in line with expectations.
Distillate inventories were down this week—by 3.5 million barrels, compared to an expected draw of 2.005 million barrels.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration report on crude oil inventories is due to be released on Thursday at 11:00a.m. EDT.
By 4:43pm EDT, WTI was trading down on the day at $72.82 and Brent was trading down at $82.73.
Source: Oilprice.com
