The US Energy Information Administration reported today that crude inventories fell 700,000 barrels to 488.0 million during the past week, while analysts forecast a drop by 1.7 million barrels.
Gasoline stocks rose 3.5 million to 233.6 million barrels, and distillate stocks rose 3.2 million to 145.9 million barrels.
While the American Petroleum Institute (API) revealed yesterday in preliminary data that the US crude inventories rose 4.1 million barrels during the same period.