API forecasts a surprise drop in US crude stocks – Trading Economics

US commercial crude inventories have declined by 3.1 million bbls in the week ended 10 May, according to the American Petroleum Institute (API) estimates cited by Trading Economics.

PHOTO: Oil pump jacks and the US flag. Getty Images

This week’s API data marked the “biggest weekly drop in [US] crude oil inventories in three weeks,” Trading Economics noted.

Oil market analysts were expecting a much smaller draw of around 1.4 million bbls in the week. “Oil prices increased as US stockpiles reportedly diminished [as per the API estimates],” Saxo Bank’s research team noted.

A decline in US crude stocks can be a positive indicator for demand growth in the world’s largest crude oil consuming nation.

The broadly followed US government data on crude oil stockpiles from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) is due later today.

By Aparupa Mazumder 

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