Oil Trades Flat After API Reports Major Crude Draw

The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a crude oil inventory draw of 6 million barrels of United States crude oil inventories for the week ending Aug 4, compared to analyst expectations that this week would see a draw in crude oil inventories of 3.33 million barrels.

Last week, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a build of 5.59 million barrels of crude oil.

The API reported a build in gasoline inventories for week ending Aug 4 in the amount of 3.1 million barrels. Analysts predicted a draw of 1.7 million barrels.

Oil prices were trading up modestly on Tuesday prior to the release of the API data on inventories, and failed to move much after data release, with WTI trading up 0.12% (+$0.08) at $69.09 per barrel, with Brent crude trading up 1.02% (+$0.75) at $74.50 per barrel as continued trade tensions with China persist and as the United States levied the first round of sanctions on Iran, with the promise of more to come in November. Muddying the waters is the mystery surrounding Saudi Arabia oil production figures which some say was up in July and others say was down

US crude oil production as estimated by the Energy Information Administration came off last week's new high of 11 million bpd, settling back down to 10. 9 million bpd this week, based on weekly estimates provided by the EIA.

Distillate inventories were up this week—by 1.8 million barrels, compared to an expected build of 220,000 barrels. Inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma site decreased this week by 576,000 barrels.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration report on crude oil inventories is due to be released on Wednesday at 10:30a.m. EDT.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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