By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com - U.S. crude stockpiles unexpectedly rose last week following a strong start to the week in oil prices amid global energy crunch in natural gas.
West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark fell to $74.33 a barrel on the news, after settling down 0.21% at $75.29 a barrel.
U.S. crude inventories increased by about 4.1 million barrels for the week ended Sept. 24. That compared with a draw of 6.1 million barrels reported by the API for the previous week. Economists were expecting a draw of about 2.3 million barrels.
The API also showed that gasoline inventories jumped by about 3.6 million last week, and distillate stocks increased by about 2.5 million barrels.
The official government inventory report due Wednesday is expected to show weekly U.S. crude supplies declined by about 1.6 million barrels last week.