U.S. crude stocks likely down 4.4M barrels last week - API

Investing.com -- U.S. crude stocks likely fell last week while inventories of gasoline and distillates rose, petroleum industry group API indicated in a preliminary report on Wednesday ahead of official inventory data.

The U.S. crude inventory balance possibly fell by 4.382 million barrels during the week ended June 30, according to the API, or American Petroleum Institute. The petroleum industry group reported a crude draw of 2.408M barrels in the prior week to June 23.

Notwithstanding the crude draw, the API cited a build of 0.289M barrels last week at the Cushing, Oklahoma hub that takes delivery of U.S. crude. In the prior week, the API reported a Cushing build of 1.45M barrels.

On the fuels side, API reported a gasoline inventory build of 1.615M barrels and a distillate stock build of 0.604M barrels. In the previous week, it noted a 2.85M barrel draw for gasoline and 0.777M build for distillates.

EIA seen reporting draw for crude, builds for gasoline and distillates 

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

For last week, analysts tracked by Investing.com expect the EIA to report a crude stockpile drop of 0.729M barrels, on top of the 9.603M barrel plunge reported during the week to July 23.

On the gasoline inventory front, the consensus is for a build of 1.451M barrels over the 603,000-barrel rise in the previous week. Automotive fuel gasoline is the No. 1 U.S. fuel product.

With distillate stockpiles, the expectation is for a climb of 0.106M barrels versus the prior week’s gain of 0.124M. Distillates are refined into heating oil, diesel for trucks, buses, trains and ships and fuel for jets.