Fueling Strategy: Please partial fill ONLY today/tonight, Thursday prices will drop 2.5 cents – Be Safe Today

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated on Wednesday a larger than anticipated crude oil inventory build of 4.16-million barrels for the week ending February 14, compared to analyst expectations of a 2.494 million barrel build in inventory.

In the previous week, the API estimated a larger than expected build in crude oil inventories of 6 million barrels, while the EIA’s estimates were even more bearish, reporting a large build of 7.5 million barrels for the week.

Oil prices were trading significantly up on Wednesday prior to the data release, with traders planning on a swift end to the current coronavirus crisis that has created demand problems in the world’s largest importer, China. Other bullish factors for oil on Wednesday were the sanctions that the United States announced on a Rosneft subsidiary for dealing in Venezuelan crude oil—a significant measure that will put additional pressure on Venezuela. At 3:36 pm EST on Wednesday the WTI benchmark was trading up on the day by at $53.55—up nearly $4 per barrel week on week. The price of a Brent barrel was also trading up on Wednesday, at $58.73—nearly $5 up week on week.

The API this week also reported a draw of 2.67 million barrels of gasoline for week ending February 14, after last week’s 1.1-million-barrel build. This week’s large gasoline build compares to analyst expectations of a 435,000 barrel build for the week. Distillate inventories were down by 2.63 million barrels for the week, compared to last week’s 2.3-million-barrel draw, while Cushing inventories rose by 4.21 million barrels. US crude oil production as estimated by the Energy Information Administration showed that production for the week ending February 7 resumed its previously hit all-time high of 13 million barrels.

At 4:39 pm EDT, WTI was trading at $53.43, while Brent was trading at $58.61.