U.S. Crude Oil Inventories See Surprise Draw

Crude oil inventories in the United States fell this week by 3.104 million barrels for the week ending May 3, according to The American Petroleum Institute (API). Analysts had expected a 1 million barrel build.

For the week prior, the API reported a 509,000 barrel build in crude inventories.

On Tuesday, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) rose by 0.6 million barrels as of May 10. Inventories are now at 367.8 million barrels—the highest point since last April, but well below the 656 million barrels in inventory in June 2020.

Oil prices were trading down ahead of the API data release on Tuesday, pushed down by a market that is nervousabout the possibility of interest rates staying high.             

At 4:00 pm ET, Brent crude was trading down $0.93 on the day at $82.43—down nearly $1 per barrel from this time last week. The U.S. benchmark WTI was also trading on the day at 1.31% to $78.08—down roughly $50 per barrel from this time last week.   

Gasoline inventories fell this week by 1.269 million barrels, countering last week’s 1.46 million barrel build. As of last week, gasoline inventories were about 2% below the five-year average for this time of year, according to the latest EIA data.

Distillate inventories rose this week by 349,000 barrels, compared to last week’s 1.713-million-barrel build. Distillates were 7% below the five-year average for the week ending May 3, the latest EIA data shows.