By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com -- U.S. crude stockpiles unexpectedly rose last week at a time when traders are weighing up the impact on demand following a resurgence of Covid-19 in China against fears of tighter supplies as Europe mulls an embargo on Russia oil.
West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, traded at $100.70 barrel following the report, after settling $101.96 cents lower $104.24 a barrel.
U.S. crude inventories rose by 1.1 million barrels for the week ended March. 31. That compared with a draw of 3.0 million barrels reported by the API for the previous week. Economists were expecting a decline of about 1.6 million barrels.
The API data also showed that gasoline inventories fell by 543,000 barrels last week, and distillate stocks increased by 593,000 barrels.
The official government inventory report due Wednesday is expected to show weekly U.S. crude supplies fell by about 2.1 million barrels last week.