By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com -- U.S. crude oil and product inventories including gasoline fell more than expected last week, the API reported Tuesday,
West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, traded at $103.33 barrel following the report after settling down 2.62% at $102.41 per barrel.
U.S. crude inventories fell by 3.5 million barrels for the week ended April. 28. That compared with a build of 4.8 million barrels reported by the API for the previous week. Economists were expecting an increase of about 1.2 million barrels.
The positive data helped oil prices recoup some of their losses amid concerns that demand from China could be sapped by recent Covid-19 lockdowns in the world's biggest oil importer.
The API data also showed that gasoline inventories fell by 4.5 million barrels last week, while distillate stocks decreased by about 4.5 million barrels.
The official government inventory report due Wednesday is expected to show weekly U.S. crude supplies fell by about 829,000 barrels last week.