API reports 11.12 million barrel crude draw, far above forecast
Cushing stocks rose 1.823 million barrels even as the national figure showed the steepest weekly drop in recent prints
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Chart: USO, a fund that tracks crude, one-minute prices, three sessions
The American Petroleum Institute reported that U.S. crude oil stocks fell 11.12 million barrels last week, against a forecast build of 1.9 million barrels and a prior draw of 2.09 million barrels.
Cushing stocks, the delivery point for U.S. crude futures, rose 1.823 million barrels over the same week.
WTI crude traded at $95.69 a barrel on Wednesday, up 1.65% from the previous day, according to Trading Economics. Brent crude traded at $106.51 a barrel, up 0.77%. Trading Economics also said WTI remains down 9.58% over the past month, despite trading 64.22% higher than a year ago.
The size of this draw stands out against the recent run of API prints, which showed builds in mid and late September before last week's more modest 2.09 million barrel draw. The swing from a surprise surge to an outsized drawdown in under a month suggests the inventory data has turned sharply more volatile, making the underlying demand trend harder to read. Cushing stocks rising even as the national headline shows a steep draw points to a regional divergence that complicates the picture further. Crude oil could see upward pressure if the official EIA figures confirm a drawdown of this size, given how far it departs from the build that had been forecast.