By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com - U.S. crude stockpiles fell last week, strengthening investor expectations the path toward demand recovery remains on track.
West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for U.S. crude prices, was up $0.36 a barrel to $65.31 on the news, after settling up $0.49 at $65.41 a barrel.
U.S. crude inventories fell by 2.5 million barrels for the week ended May 6, according to an estimate released Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute. That compared with a draw of 7.7 million barrels reported by the API for the previous week.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said in a monthly report that demand will rise by 5.95 million barrels per day this year, or 6.6%, just as it forecast last month.
The API also showed that gasoline inventories rose by about 5.6 million last week, compared with a 5.3 million fall in the prior week, and distillate stocks slipped by about 0.87 million barrels.
The official government inventory report due Wednesday is expected to show weekly U.S. crude supplies fell by about 2.8 million barrels last week.