By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com - U.S. crude stockpiles fell by more than expected last week, amid a slow recovery of U.S. production following disruptions from Hurricane Ida.
West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark climbed to $70.84 a barrel on the news, after settling up $0.27 to $70.56 a barrel.
U.S. crude inventories decreased by about 6.1 million barrels for the week ended Sept. 17. That compared with a draw of 5.4 million barrels reported by the API for the previous week. Economists were expecting a draw of about 2.4 million barrels.
About a fifth of crude production remains offline in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico nearly three weeks after Hurricane Ida made landfall in the Louisiana Gulf Coast.
The API also showed that gasoline inventories declined by about 432,000 last week, and distillate stocks slipped by about 2.7 million barrels.
The official government inventory report due Wednesday is expected to show weekly U.S. crude supplies declined by about 2.4 million barrels last week.