The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a significant and unexpected decrease in U.S. crude oil inventories for the week ending on April 19th.
The EIA report revealed a drop of 6.4 million barrels in the past week, following a rise of 2.7 million barrels in the prior week. This contradicts economists' predictions, which anticipated an increase of 1.6 million barrels in crude oil inventories.
As per the latest data, U.S. crude oil inventories stand at 453.6 million barrels, approximately 3 percent less than the five-year average for this period.
The EIA's report further indicated that gasoline inventories slightly decreased by 0.6 million barrels over the last week. Currently, they are around 4 percent lower than the five-year average.
Conversely, distillate fuel inventories, encompassing heating oil and diesel, rose by 1.6 million barrels in the last week. However, they are still roughly 7 percent below the five-year average for the same period.
