Oil strengthens on bullish API report

Oil strengthened on both sides of the Atlantic after the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a bigger-than-expected draw in the US oil inventories.

At the time of writing, WTI oil was up 41 cents or 0.86% at $48.07/barrel. Brent was up 48 cents or 0.95% at $50.94/barrel.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a healthy draw of 4.2 million barrels in United States crude oil inventories. Analysts were expecting a draw of 2.2 million barrels for the week ending April 28.

Gasoline inventories dropped 1.9 million barrels as well. Analysts were expecting a gasoline build of 1 million barrels.

Oil traders would be interested to see if the official US government report confirms the API drawdown in inventories.