Crude inventories post surprise 3.19 million barrel draw
The Energy Information Administration reports a bigger drop than forecast, reversing weeks of unexpected builds.
Published
Chart: USO, a fund that tracks crude, one-minute prices, three sessions
Crude oil inventories fell by 3.19 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said, far exceeding the 1.72 million barrel draw that analysts had expected. The prior week's data had shown a build of 922,000 barrels.
The decline breaks a run of surprise builds through late September, when stockpiles rose against expectations for three straight weeks and pushed near-term sentiment toward oversupply. This week's miss against consensus is sharper than the swings that had left direction unclear in recent weeks.
Industry data from the American Petroleum Institute had already pointed to a drawdown, showing crude inventories falling by 2.1 million barrels for the prior week, according to Trading Economics. Ahead of the official release, WTI crude was trading around $89.45 to $89.79 a barrel and Brent around $100.47 to $101.29, according to Investing.com.
The draw lands a day after the EIA raised its 2026 Brent forecast to $98 a barrel, citing tight diesel supplies and disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz, and said it now expects Brent to average $105 in the fourth quarter on falling global inventories and repeated strikes near Hormuz. This week's figures give that forecast a more direct tie to the data than the inventory builds it had been contending with.