U.S. crude oil and fuel inventories fell last week, according to market sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Wednesday.
The API figures showed crude stocks fell by 7.431 million barrels in the week ended Aug. 30, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Gasoline inventories fell by 336,000 barrels, and distillates fell by 406,000 barrels, they said.
Nine analysts polled by Reuters estimated, on average, a much smaller crude oil stock draw of about 1 million barrels.
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) will release its weekly U.S. oil stocks data on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT). Both the API and EIA weekly reports were delayed a day due to Monday’s Labor Day holiday.
(Reporting by Georgina McCartney in Houston Editing by Chris Reese and Marguerita Choy)