By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com -- U.S. crude oil inventories rose last week, confounding expectations for a decline at a time when fears of a supply shortage are running high as summer driving accelerates and jet fuel recovers to push demand higher.
West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, traded at $119.58 per barrel following the report after settling up 0.77% at $119.41 per barrel.
U.S. crude inventories increased by about 1.8 million barrels for the week ended June 2. That compared with a draw of 1.2 million barrels reported by the API for the previous week. Economists were expecting a decrease of about 1.8 million barrels.
The API data also showed that gasoline inventories rose by 1.8 million barrels last week, while distillate stocks rose by about 3.4 million barrels.
Having topped $5 a gallon in 13 states across the U.S., gas prices are expected to continue to edge higher as refinery runs struggle to keep up with demand.
The official government inventory report due Thursday is expected to show weekly U.S. crude supplies fell by about 1.9 million barrels last week.