US commercial crude oil inventories dropped -8m barrels in the week ending April 30, much larger decline than expectation of -0.8m barrels. At 485.1m barrels, crude oil inventories are about 2% below the five year average for this time of year. Gasoline inventories rose 0.7m barrels. Distillate dropped -2.9m barrels. Propane/propylene rose 0.5m barrels. Commercial petroleum inventories dropped -5.6m barrels.
WTI’s rally continued this week and hit as high as 66.68 so far. Further rise is expected as long as 62.85 support holds, for retesting 67.83 high. As we’re still viewing such rise from 57.31 as the second leg of the corrective pattern from 67.83, we’d expect strong resistance from there to limit upside. Break of 62.85 should confirm the start of the third leg, a falling leg, of the pattern. Nevertheless, strong break of 67.83 will resume the medium term up trend towards 70 handle first.
