U.S. crude stocks up 3.6M barrels last week vs forecast draw  - API

Investing.com -- U.S. crude stockpiles rose last week, bucking expectations for a draw, while fuel demand was mixed, petroleum industry group API said Tuesday as oil bulls counted on a pick-up in energy demand ahead of the typical summer surge in road, air and seaborne travel.

The U.S. crude inventory balance rose by 3.618 million barrels during the week ended May 5, according to the American Petroleum Institute, or API. The petroleum industry group had reported a crude drawdown of 3.939M barrels in the prior week to April 28.

The net build in crude stockpiles aside, the API noted a 1.316M barrel draw itself at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery point for U.S. crude.

On the fuel side, API reported a gasoline inventory build of 0.4M barrels and a distillate stock drop of 3.945M barrels.

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

For last week, analysts tracked by Investing.com expect the EIA to report a crude stockpile drop of 0.917M barrels, versus the 1.28M barrel reduction reported during the week to April 28.

On the gasoline inventory front, the consensus is for a draw of 1.233M barrels over the 1.743M build 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 0.808M barrels versus the prior week’s deficit of 1.191M. Distillates, which are refined into heating oil, diesel for trucks, buses, trains and ships and fuel for jets, have been the strongest component of the U.S. petroleum complex in terms of demand.