By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com - U.S. oil stockpiles fell last week, but product inventories rose sharply taking some shine off a positive day for oil prices Tuesday after Saudi Arabia delivered an expected cut to production.
U.S. crude inventories fell by 1.663 million barrels last week, according to an estimate released Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute, after a draw of 4.785 million barrels the previous week. Gasoline inventories rose by 5.473 million and distillate stocks by 7.136 million barrels.
Crude Oil WTI Futures, the U.S. benchmark for oil was 4.7% higher after settling up 4.9% at $49.93 per barrel.
Saudi Arabia pledged to cut output by 1 million barrels a day from January levels to offset a rise in output from OPEC+, led by Russia and Kazakhstan. The agreement allows Russia and Kazakhstan to lift production by 75,000 bpd in February from January levels and another 75,000 bpd in March.
The official government report due Wednesday is expected to show weekly U.S. crude supplies decreased by about 1.27 million barrels last week.