Oil Inventories in Surprise 593,000 Barrel Rise Last Week: API

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com -- U.S. crude stockpiles unexpectedly climbed last week, the API reported Tuesday, but larger declines in product supplies including gasoline pointed to underlying strength in energy demand despite signs of slowing global growth.  

West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, traded at $92.23 a barrel following the report after settling down 5.5% at $91.64 a barrel. 

U.S. crude inventories rose by 593,000 barrels for the week ended Aug. 26. That compared with a draw of 5.6 million barrels reported by the API in the previous week. Economists were expecting a decline of about 633,000 barrels. 

The API data also showed that gasoline inventories fell by 3.4 million barrels last week, and distillate stocks decreased by 1.7 million barrels.

The official government inventory report due Wednesday is expected to show weekly U.S. crude supplies fell by about 1.5 million barrels last week.

Oil prices slumped on Tuesday amid reports that Iraq suffered no major disruptions to oil exports from ongoing civil unrest. Russian media outlet TASS, citing an unnamed source in one of the OPEC+ delegations, said major oil producers aren't weighing up plans to cut production.  

The remarks arrived a week after Saudi Energy Minister bin Salman floated the idea of production cuts to prop up oil prices.