US oil futures slip after surprise API build

Investing.com -- U.S. crude oil futures fell in post-settlement trading Tuesday after the American Petroleum Institute reported domestic crude stocks unexpectedly jumped last week, muddying expectations for a seasonal pick up in energy demand over the summer.

Crude Oil WTI Futures, the U.S. benchmark, traded at $72.93 a barrel following the report after settling down 1.3% at $73.25 a barrel.

U.S. crude inventories increased by about 4.0 million barrels for the week ended May. 29, compared with a draw of 6.5M barrels reported by the API for the previous week. Economists were expecting a decrease of 1.9M barrels.

Gasoline stockpiles rose by 4.03M barrels, while distillate inventories -- the class of fuels that includes diesel and heating oil -- increased by 2.0M barrels.

The build in both crude and product followed data in the prior week that showed a fall in gasoline demand by 2% week-on-week even as refinery activity hit multi-month highs

The official government inventory report is due Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT).

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