The API said on Tuesday that although U.S. crude stockpiles increased last week more than anticipated, gasoline inventories decreased, suggesting that refinery activity is still recovering despite rising fuel demand.
The U.S. benchmark crude oil futures, WTI Futures, settled down 0.1% at $85.36 a barrel before trading at $85.28 a barrel in response to the report.
The API recorded an increase of 3.03 million barrels in U.S. crude stocks the week before, while actual increases were closer to 4.09 million barrels for the week ending April 12. It was only 600,000 barrels more than economists had predicted.
In contrast to projections of 1 million and 400,000 barrel withdrawals, respectively, the API data also revealed that petrol and distillate stockpiles decreased by 2.51 million and 427,000 barrels, respectively.
