Oil Inventories Fell by 1M Barrels Last Week: API

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com – U.S. oil stockpiles unexpectedly fell last week as a narrower weekly draw in gasoline stocks signaled that refiner activity was normalizing after a big freeze in Texas stifled production last month.

Crude Oil WTI Futures, the U.S. benchmark for oil, fell $0.46 a barrel on the news after settling down $0.59 cents at $64.8 a barrel.

The outlook for oil prices remains positive in the near-term amid an ongoing tightening in supplies, though some suggest the rally in oil prices so far this year will encourage OPEC and other oil producing-nation to ease production curbs.

“We expect economic growth and oil demand to provide resilient and OPEC+- to ease their production restraint in the coming months. These extra barrels will likely be an oil price headwind as the year progresses,” Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) said in a note.

The official government inventory report due Wednesday is expected to show weekly U.S. crude supplies increased by about 2.964 million barrels last week.