WTI Crude Oil Prices Decline Even After API Report Shows Decline in US Crude Stockpiles

On Wednesday, WTI crude oil prices are sliding lower for the third consecutive data on the back of API’s crude inventories report. At the time of writing, WTI crude oil is trading at around $55.23 per barrel.

According to the API report released on Tuesday, US crude stocks at the Cushing delivery hub in Oklahoma grew by 1.2 million barrels during the previous week. Overall, US crude inventories declined by 700k barrels last week to touch 436 million, going against economists’ forecast which was foe a rise of 494k barrels.

Weakening demand worries are back in focus as the global economic growth slows down as a fallout effect of the US-China trade war. Although both nations have signaled that negotiations towards an interim trade agreement are making progress, a US administration official indicated on Tuesday that it may take more time to finalize the deal.

Crude oil prices also traded under pressure following comments from the Russian deputy energy minister who remarked that it was too soon to consider additional production curbs. Earlier this year, OPEC and its allies had agreed to curb crude oil production by 1.2 million bpd until March 2020. Weaker demand had markets hoping that OPEC+ would announce more production cuts in its upcoming meeting in December to stem the decline in oil prices.