Oil on Renewed 5-Day Rally after Surprise US Crude Stocks Drop By Investing.com – Investing.com

Oil on Renewed 5-Day Rally after Surprise US Crude Stocks Drop By Investing.com – Investing.com

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(updates with analyst, context and prices)

Investing.com -- U.S. oil stockpiles unexpectedly fell in the latest week, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.

Crude inventories declined by 431,000 barrels last week, compared with analysts' expectations for a build of 1.857 million barrels.

Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and , fell by 3.913 million barrels in the week against expectations for a draw of 700,000 barrels, the EIA data showed.

Gasoline inventories declined by 5.368 million barrels last week the EIA said, compared with expectations for a draw of 1.267 million barrels.

“This should come as a relief to the oil bulls, who’ve probably been having some consternation over the previous three straight weeks of crude builds that added almost 13 million barrels to raw inventories,” said Investing.com analyst Barani Krishnan. “Also, this is the first time in a long stretch that the API crude build number of 3.3 million barrels reported last night has been totally out of whack with the official EIA figure.”

Krishnan said lower crude imports appeared to have contributed to the thinner crude balance sheet, as the United States shipped in nearly 170,000 barrels per day less than the previous week.

“That