By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com - U.S. crude stockpiles fell last week and fuel inventories like gasoline continue to build at a time when many continue to bet on a strong summer of demand for energy as international travel gathers steam.
West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for U.S. crude prices, was up 2.23% to $72.46 a barrel on the news, after settling up up 1.75% to $72.12 a barrel.
U.S. crude inventories fell by 8.5 million barrels for the week ended June 10, according to an estimate released Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute. That compared with a draw of 2.1 million barrels reported by the API for the previous week.
The API also showed that gasoline inventories rose by about 2.9 million last week, compared with a 2.4 million build in the prior week, and distillate stocks rose by about 2.0 million barrels.
The official government inventory report due Wednesday is expected to show weekly U.S. crude supplies declined by about 3.3 million barrels last week.