The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated on Tuesday a large crude oil inventory build of 6.407 million barrels for the week ending March 6, compared to analyst expectations of a 1.848-million-barrel build in inventory, but the shaky oil market seems to be taking it in stride.
In the previous week, the API estimated a smaller than expected build in crude oil inventories of 1.7-million barrels, while the EIA’s estimates were more bullish, reporting a smaller build of 800,000 barrels for the week.
Oil prices were trading up on Tuesday in the hours leading up to the data release after Monday’s 30% price slump after Saudi Arabia waged a full-on oil price war following Russia’s pullout of the deal to cut more production with OPEC+ members.
At 1:33 pm EDT on Tuesday the WTI benchmark was trading up on the day by $2.74 (+8.80%) at $33.87—but still down more than $14 per barrel week on week. The price of a Brent barrel was also trading up on Tuesday, by $2.90 (+8.44%), at $37.26—down by roughly $15 week on week.
The API reported a draw of 3.09 million barrels of gasoline for week ending March 6, after last week’s 3.9-million-barrel draw. This week’s draw compares to analyst expectations for a 2.686-million-barrel draw for the week.
Distillate inventories were down by 4.679 million barrels for the week, compared to last week’s 1.7-million-barrel draw, while Cushing inventories rose by 364,000 barrels.
US crude oil production as estimated by the Energy Information Administration showed that production for the week ending February 28 rose again to a new all-time high of 13.1 million bpd.
At 4:41 pm EDT, WTI was trading at $34.65, while Brent was trading at $37.89.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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