The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a decrease of 1.076 million barrels of crude oil in U.S. inventories for the week ending Feb. 4.

Analysts had expected an increase of about 1.769 million barrels for this week.

The API reported a drop of 2.025 million barrels in the previous week.

Oil prices finished Tuesday’s session with marked losses as traders eyed updates on the Ukraine crisis.

The West Texas Intermediate for March delivery lost 3.39 U.S. dollars, or nearly 3.6 percent, to settle at 92.07 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for April delivery decreased 3.2 dollars, or 3.3 percent, to close at 93.28 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

Traders also looked ahead to data on U.S. crude stockpiles as the U.S. Energy Information Administration is set to release its weekly petroleum status report on Wednesday.

Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts forecast the U.S. crude inventories to show a fall of 200,000 barrels for the week ending Feb. 11.

The API data show how much oil and product is available in U.S. storage, giving an overview of the country’s petroleum demand.
Source: Xinhua