U.S. crude stocks likely up 1.3M barrels last week - API

Investing.com -- U.S. crude oil stocks likely rose last week, with gains in inventories of distillates too and a decline in gasoline stockpiles, petroleum industry group API indicated in a preliminary report on Tuesday ahead of official inventory data.

The U.S. crude inventory balance possibly rose by 1.319 million barrels during the week ended July 21, according to the API, or American Petroleum Institute. The petroleum industry group reported a crude draw of 0.797M barrels in the prior week to July 14.

Notwithstanding the broader build in crude stockpiles, the API cited a drop of 2.34M barrels last week at the Cushing, Oklahoma hub that takes delivery of U.S. crude. In the prior week, the API reported a Cushing deficit of 3.0M barrels.

On the fuels side, API reported a gasoline inventory drop of 1.043M barrels and a distillate stock build of 1.614M barrels. In the previous week, it noted a 2.8M barrel draw for gasoline and 0.1M drop for distillates.

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

For last week, analysts tracked by Investing.com expect the EIA to report a crude stockpile drop of 2.4M barrels, versus the 0.708M barrel reduction reported during the week to July 14.

On the gasoline inventory front, the consensus is for a build of 0.146M barrels over the 1.066M 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 0.075M barrels versus the prior week’s gain of 0.014M. Distillates are refined into heating oil, diesel for trucks, buses, trains and ships and fuel for jets.