U.S. Crude Oil Futures Update

U.S. crude oil futures dipped in post-settlement trading on Tuesday after the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a larger-than-expected decline in domestic crude inventories, while gasoline stocks saw a slight increase.

Current Prices

Crude Oil WTI Futures, the U.S. benchmark, recently traded at $69.80 a barrel after settling down 0.9% at $70.08 a barrel.

Inventory Reports

• U.S. crude inventories fell by approximately 4.7M barrels for the week ending December 13, compared to a build of 499,000 barrels reported by the API the previous week.
• Economists had anticipated a draw of 1.9M barrels.
• Gasoline stockpiles increased by about 2.4M barrels.
• Distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, climbed by 700,000 barrels.

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