Oil Prices Unmoved By Small Crude, Gasoline Build

The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a build this week for crude oil of 1.860 million barrels, while analysts predicted a build of 333,000 barrels.

The build comes as the Department of Energy released 5 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves in Week Ending July 15, to 480.1 million barrels.

U.S. crude inventories have shed some 61 million barrels since the start of 2021, with a 1.83 million barrel gain since the start of 2020, according to API data.

In the week prior, the API reported a build in crude oil inventories of 4.762 million barrels after analysts had predicted a draw of 1.933 million barrels.

WTI was trading up on Tuesday as fears of the tight market over take recession fears—at least for today. WTI was trading up 1.32% on the day at 2:09 p.m. ET in the runup to the release at $104 per barrel—a rise of roughly $8.50 on the week. Brent crude was trading up 1.02% on the day at $107.30—a nearly $8 rise on the week.

U.S. crude oil production data for the week ending July 8 slipped by 100,000 bpd to 12 million bpd, according to the latest EIA data.  

The API also reported a build in gasoline inventories this week of 1.290 million barrels for the week ending July 15, compared to the previous week's 2.927-million-barrel build.

Distillate stocks saw a draw of 2.153 million barrels for the week, compared to last week's 3.262-million-barrel increase.

Cushing inventories rose by 523,000 barrels this week, on top of last week’s build of 298,000. Official EIA Cushing inventories for week ending July 8 was 21.646 million, up slightly from 21.330 in the prior week.

At 5:05 pm, ET, WTI was trading up at $103.80 (+1.17%), with Brent trading up at $107.20 (+0.86%).

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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