The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a draw of 3.280 million barrels of U.S. crude oil inventories for the week ending March 30.
API had forecast the oil inventories to increase by 1.7 million barrels for the week. The difference between the two numbers indicates strong demand and bullish for crude prices.
Late Tuesday afternoon, the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent, the two major oil price benchmarks, went up 0.60 percent and 0.80 percent to 63.55 U.S. dollars and 68.18 dollars, respectively.
Last week, the API reported a buildup of 5.321 million barrels of U.S. crude inventories, far more than 1 million barrels as expected, demonstrating weak demand and bearish for crude prices in the week ending March 23.
Editor:Amber
