A Sharp Decline in US Oil Inventories

Data from the American Petroleum Institute showed that American oil inventories witnessed a sharp decline last week, contrary to market expectations, as US oil inventories recorded a decrease of 6.8 million barrels over the week ending July 24 to 531 million barrels, while analysts’ expectations indicated that an increase of 357 thousand barrels.

On the other hand, gasoline stocks rose by about 1.1 million barrels, while Reuters polled analysts had expected a decrease of 733 thousand barrels. Meanwhile, distillate stocks, which include diesel and heating oil, increased by 187,000 barrels, while analysts’ expectations indicated a decrease of 267,000 barrels.

This is while we await the official data from the Energy Information Administration this evening at 2:30 pm GMT.

Oil production in the United States has now fallen from 13.1 million bpd on March 13 to 11.1 million bpd for July 17, according to the Energy Information Administration, after sitting for the previous four weeks at 11 million bpd.