Investing.com — U.S. crude stockpiles increased more than expected last week, the API reported Wednesday, marking the second-straight week of much larger builds and fueling further focus on robust domestic production.
, the U.S. benchmark, traded at $78.03 a barrel following the report after settling up 1.1% at $77.91 a barrel.
rose by about 7.2 million barrels for the week ended Feb. 16, compared with a build of 8.5M barrels reported by the API for the previous week. Economists were expecting an increase of about $4.3M barrels.
The API data also showed that gasoline inventories rose by about 415,000 barrels, while distillate stockpiles fell by 2.9M barrels, confounding expectations for a draw of about 2.1M barrels and 1.4M barrels, respectively.
The official government inventory report due Thursday is expected to show weekly U.S. increased by about 4.3M barrels last week.
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