Oil Inventories Unexpectedly Rise by 2.3M Barrels Last Week: API

West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark traded at $78.62 barrel on the news, after settling up 2.5% at $78.67 a barrel.

U.S. crude inventories increased by 2.3 million barrels for the week ended Nov. 16. That compared with a build of 655,000 barrels reported by the API for the previous week. Economists were expecting a draw of about 950,000 barrels.

The API data also showed that gasoline inventories rose by 600,000 barrels last week, and distillate stocks decreased by 1.5 million barrels.

The official government inventory report due Wednesday is expected to show weekly U.S. crude supplies fell by about 481,000 barrels last week.