Investing.com – U.S. crude oil futures fell in post-settlement trading on Tuesday even after the American Petroleum Institute reported a bigger-than-expected drop in domestic weekly crude inventories, a further sign that demand is picking up in the summer.
the US benchmark, traded at $80.94 per barrel after the report, having settled 1.1% lower at $81.41 per barrel.
fell by about 1.9 million barrels for the week ending July 5, compared to a decline of 9.2 million barrels reported by the API for the previous week. Economists had expected a tie of 250,000.
The bigger-than-expected draw comes even after refineries in the oil-rich state of Texas suffered disruptions, albeit limited, due to the impact of Hurricane Beryl, which made landfall on Monday.
The API data also showed that gasoline inventories fell by 3 million barrels, while distillate inventories – the class of fuels that includes diesel and heating oil – increased by 2.3 million barrels.
The report is expected at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) on Wednesday.
