American Petroleum Institute (API) crude oil inventories -3.7 million bbls

American Petroleum Institute (API) crude oil inventory data, for the week ended September 18:

• Big drop in inventory of 3.7 million barrels
• Crude stock at Cushing is down 490K bbls

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Note - This data is out earlier to API subscribers (at 4.30pm ET) and released publicly at 4.35pm ET.

The API data is closely watched as a guide to the U.S. Energy Information
Administration (EIA) data due tomorrow morning (US time).

The consensus estimate for tomorrow's EIA report is currently for -1162.5K barrels (i.e. an inventory draw of 1162.5K barrels.

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Oil popped in price on the release of the number to API subscribers at 4.30pm ET, the public release 5 minutes later has seen prices stay around the high.