By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com - U.S. crude stockpiles unexpectedly rose last week, but concerns over supply shortages remained front and center at time when demand will continue to strengthen as economies reopen.
West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark traded at $79.12 a barrel on the news, after settling up 1.7% at $78.93 a barrel.
U.S. crude inventories increased by 951,000 million barrels for the week ended Oct. 1. That compared with a build of 4.1 million barrels reported by the API for the previous week. Economists were expecting a draw of about 300,000 barrels.
The API also showed that gasoline inventories jumped by about 3.7 million last week, and distillate stocks increased by about 345,000 million barrels.
Oil prices started the started the week on the front foot after OPEC+ maintained its plan to gradually increase output by 400,000 additional barrels of oil per month defying calls from the White House to boost production further,
The official government inventory report due Wednesday is expected to show weekly U.S. crude supplies declined by about 418,000 barrels last week.