Following last night's surprise inventory build (as reported by API) [3], as one trader noted, "inventory declines are expected this time of yr and more or less expected, we need to see inventory draws accelerating," and DOE didn't disappoint reporting a 2.8 million barrel draw (against expectations of a 2 million barrel draw). Inventories remains massively high though and Crude Production soared 3.28% - the biggest rise since Oct 2013. Crude prices initially ripped on the inventory news but are fading.
4th week in a row of inventory draws
[4]
For some context as to what this inventory change means...
[5]
But production exploded by the most in 19 months... Lower 48 States increased production at an average of 209,000 barrels per day
[6]
Crude prices ramped into the data after legging down all morning... spiked on the news but perhaps the machines have not seen the production data yet.
[7]
Charts: Bloomberg
