U.S. crude stocks likely rose by over 4M barrels last week - API

investing.com:

Investing.com — U.S. crude oil stocks likely rose by over 4 million barrels last week, with deficits/gains in inventories of gasoline and distillates too, amid intensive production cuts by Saudi Arabia, petroleum industry group API indicated in a preliminary report on Tuesday ahead of official inventory data.

The U.S. crude inventory balance possibly grew by 4.067M barrels during the week ended Aug 4, according to the API, or American Petroleum Institute. 

The petroleum industry group reported a crude draw of 15.4M barrels in the prior week to July 28.

The API numbers serve as a precursor to official inventory data on the same due from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA, on Wednesday. 

In the previous week, the EIA reported a record crude draw of 17.049M barrels, underscoring Saudi Arabia’s claims that it has taken an additional million barrels per day off its production since the start of July. The Saudis have pledged to keep up with such cuts through September.

Notwithstanding the broader crude stockpile gain it reported for last week, the API cited a slide of 0.112M barrels last week at the Cushing, Oklahoma hub that takes delivery of U.S. crude. In the prior week, the API reported a Cushing deficit of 1.76M barrels.

On the fuels side, API reported a gasoline inventory drop of 0.413M barrels and a distillate stock slide of 2.093M barrels. In the previous week, it noted a 1.68M barrel draw for gasoline and 0.512M deficit for distillates.

With the API report out, anticipation builds on what the EIA will cite for last week’s oil supply-demand in the United States, and how that will impact crude prices that have been rallying the past six weeks.

For last week, analysts tracked by Investing.com expect the