The price of crude oil rose today after the US Energy Information Administration announced a crude oil inventory drawdown of 8 million barrels for the week through April 15.

This compares to a 9.4 million barrel increase in inventory for the previous week, which, however, did not move prices significantly.

A day earlier on Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute estimated a crude oil inventory draw of nearly 4.5 million barrels.

At 413.7 million barrels, according to the EIA, inventories were 15% below the five-year average for this time of year.

Oil was trading higher at the time of writing as bullish factors combined to push it even higher. Among these were force majeure at Libyan export terminals and the closure of two major fields, including Sharara, the country’s largest, and the news that Russian oil shipments abroad had fallen by 25%. in the past seven days.

Further upward pressure on prices came from the International Monetary Fund, which on Tuesday revised down its growth forecast for the global economy for this year, saying it was likely to be one percentage point lower than previous predictions.

Meanwhile, the EIA added to the bullish sentiment by also reporting an inventory draw of 800,000 barrels of gasoline, with production of 9.8 million bpd last week.

That compares to a gasoline inventory draw of 3.6 million barrels for the previous week and an average daily production of 9.5 million barrels.

In middle distillates, the authority estimated a stock draw of 2.7 million barrels for the week through April 15, with an average production of XXX million barrels per day.

This compares to an inventory drawdown of 2.9 million barrels for the previous week and an average daily production of 4.7 million bpd.

At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $107 a barrel, with West Texas Intermediate at $102.20 a barrel, both down slightly since trading opened.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More reading on Oilprice.com: