EIA: Commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 4 million barrels from previous week

In its weekly petroleum report for the week ending May 3, the Energy Information Administration announced that the commercial crude oil inventories in the U.S. decreased by 4 million barrels. With the initial market reaction, the barrel of West Texas Intermediate extended its daily rebound and was last seen trading at $61.80, rising 0.6% on a daily basis.

Further details of the report revealed that gasoline production and distillate fuel production both increased in the same period while refineries operated at 88.9% of capacity. 

"U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.7 million barrels per day last week, down by 721,000 barrels per day from the previous week," the EIA further informed in its press release.