U.S. crude oil futures rose slightly from post-settlement levels Tuesday as the American Petroleum Institute reported a much larger drop in weekly domestic crude inventories.
Crude Oil WTI Futures, the U.S. benchmark, recently traded at $65.03 a barrel following the report after settling down $4.14, or 6%, at $64.37 barrel.
Oil prices have been declining sharply as investors price out the war premium from prices after Israel and Iran ceasefire agreement curb bets on supply disruption in the Middle East.
U.S. crude inventories fell by about 4.3 million barrels for the week ended Jun. 21, compared with a decline of 10.1M barrels reported by the API for the previous week and expectations for an decrease of about 600,000 barrels.
Gasoline stockpiles increased by 764,000 barrels, while distillate inventories -- the class of fuels that includes diesel and heating oil -- fell by about 1M barrels.
The official government inventory report is due Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT).
