Crude oil prices inched higher today after the Energy Information Administration reported an inventory decline of 500,000 barrels for the week to June 9.
This compared with an inventory build of 4.5 million barrels for the previous week, which pushed prices lower.
At 459.2 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are around 2% below the five-year average for this time of the year, the EIA said.
In fuels, the agency estimated inventory builds across the board.
Gasoline stocks added 2.7 million barrels in the reporting period, which compared with a draw of 200,000 barrels for the previous week.
Gasoline production averaged 10.1 million barrels daily, compared with 10 million bpd a week earlier.
Middle distillate inventories went up by 5.1 million barrels in the week to June 9, which compared with a build of 1 million barrels for the previous week.
Middle distillate production averaged 5.2 million bpd, which compared with 5 million barrels daily a week earlier.
Oil prices, meanwhile, extended their slide that began on Monday after a quick jump following the latest OPEC+ production cut announcement. Later in the day, they reversed the decline.
At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $77.10 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate was changing hands at $72.58 per barrel, both up from opening by more than a percentage point.
The stubborn slide in prices from earlier this week was the result of downward pressure coming from mounting concern among traders about global economic growth. However, today it seems the news of the additional Saudi cuts began to sink in, pushing prices higher.
"The fears of recession, as more and more sombre economic readings point towards a slowdown, have kept a lid on oil prices, eroding all OPEC+'s efforts to keep prices afloat," a Philip Nova analyst said in a note as quoted by Reuters.
Earlier this week, the Institute for Supply Management reported that the U.S. service sector had contracted to 50.3 in May from a reading of 51.9 for April.
The manufacturing sector has been shrinking for seven months. New orders for manufacturing sector have risen but only in the defense industry, Reuters noted in a report Tuesday.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
