U.S. Crude Oil Futures Remain Steady

U.S. crude oil futures experienced little change in post-settlement trading on Tuesday after the American Petroleum Institute (API) announced a larger-than-anticipated increase in weekly domestic inventories, although gasoline supplies saw a slight increase.

Crude Oil WTI Futures, the U.S. benchmark, recently traded at $69.33 a barrel after settling up 0.3% at $69.39 a barrel.

U.S. crude inventories rose by approximately 4.75 million barrels for the week ending November 15, contrasting with a draw of 777,000 barrels reported by the API the previous week. Economists had predicted an increase of only 800,000 barrels.

In addition, gasoline stockpiles declined by about 2.48 million barrels, while distillate inventories, which include fuels like diesel and heating oil, decreased by 688,000 barrels.

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