Oil Inventories Unexpectedly Rise by 2.2M Barrels Last Week: API

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com -- U.S. crude oil inventories unexpectedly increased last week, API data showed Tuesday, just days ahead of a decision from major oil producers to stick with only modest supply increases.        

West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, traded at $93.77 per barrel following the report after settling up 0.6% or $1.72 at $94.42 per barrel.

U.S. crude inventories increased by about 2.2 million barrels for the week ended July 29. That compared with a draw of 4.0 million barrels reported by the API for the previous week. Economists were expecting a decrease of about 467,000 barrels. 

The fall in crude inventories arrived just as investors looked ahead to the OPEC+ meeting later this week, when major oil producers are expected to deliver a decision on whether to boost crude output. In June, the OPEC+ Joint Ministerial Committee recommended an increase in monthly production to 648,000 barrels per day, or bpd, in July and August from about 420,000 bpd.

Gasoline inventories fell by 204,000, while distillate also declined by 351,000. 

The official government inventory report due Wednesday is expected to show weekly U.S. crude supplies fell by about 629,000 barrels last week.