API reports another large crude draw

HOUSTON, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- The American Petroleum Institute (API) data revealed a 5.121-million-barrel draw of the U.S. crude oil inventories for the week ending Jan. 12, marking another large draw in weeks.

Last week, the API reported a huge draw of 11.19 million barrels of crude oil and an increase of 4.338 million barrels in gasoline inventories.

However, according to the Weekly Petroleum Status Report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) of the week ending Jan. 5. decreased by 4.9 million barrels from the previous week.

This week, the API reported another, although smaller, build in gasoline inventories of 1.782 million barrels for the week ending Jan. 12.

Oil prices kept stable on Wednesday. The West Texas Intermediate was trading up 0.33 percent at 64.13 U.S. dollars Wednesday afternoon. The Brent benchmark was trading up 0.10 percent at 69.45 dollars. Enditem