U.S. crude stocks up 1.6M barrels, gasoline, distillates down  - API

Investing.com -- U.S. crude oil stockpiles rose in the just-ended week, after tumbling the prior week, while inventories of fuel products gasoline and distillates extended their declines, according to a report by petroleum industry group API. 

The U.S. crude inventory balance possibly rose by 1.586M barrels during the week ended Sept. 22, according to the API, or American Petroleum Institute. 

The petroleum industry group reported a crude drop of 5.25M barrels in the prior week to Sept. 15.

The API numbers serve as a precursor to official inventory data on the same due from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA, on Wednesday. 

Notwithstanding the build in crude stockpiles, the API cited a drop of 0.828M barrels last week at the Cushing, Oklahoma hub that serves as a central delivery and storage point for U.S. crude. In the prior week, the API reported a Cushing deficit of ​​2.564M barrels.

On the fuels side, API reported a drop of 0.07M barrels in gasoline and  a decline of 1.698M in distillates. In the previous week, it noted a 0.732M barrel build for gasoline and a drop of 0.258M gain for distillates.

With the API report out, anticipation builds on what the EIA will cite for last week’s oil supply-demand in the United States, and how that will impact crude prices that have risen about 30% over the past three months as a squeeze in Saudi-Russian production prompted the trade to prioritize supply reduction over real demand.

For last week, analysts tracked by Investing.com expect the EIA to report a crude stockpile drop of 1.65 million barrels, versus the 2.135M reduction reported during the week to Sept 15.

On the gasoline inventory front, the consensus is for a slide of 0.050M barrels over the 0.831M-barrel decline in the previous week. Automotive fuel gasoline is the No. 1 U.S. fuel product.

With distillate stockpiles, the expectation is for a drop of 2.0M barrels versus the prior week’s deficit of 2.867M. Distillates are refined into heating oil, diesel for trucks, buses, trains and ships and fuel for jets.