U.S. Crude Oil Futures Update

U.S. crude oil futures recovered from lows in post-settlement trading on Tuesday after the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a surprise decline in weekly domestic crude stocks.

Crude Oil WTI Futures: The U.S. benchmark recently traded at $66.31 a barrel after settling down 4.3% at $65.75 a barrel.

According to the API, U.S. crude inventories decreased by approximately 2.8 million barrels for the week ending September 6, a stark contrast to the 7.4 million barrels draw reported for the previous week. Economists had anticipated an increase of about 0.7 million barrels.

Additionally, gasoline stockpiles fell by about 513,000 barrels, while distillate inventories (which include diesel and heating oil) rose by 191,000 barrels.

The official government inventory report is scheduled for release on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT).

Macquarie recently noted, “We are forecasting U.S. crude inventories up 0.3 million barrels for the week ending September 6.”