By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com - U.S. crude stockpiles fell by less than expected last week amid ongoing concerns about the threat of the delta variant of Covid-19 to demand.
West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark slipped by 79 cents to $70.47 a barrel on the news, after settling down 70 cents to $70.56 a barrel.
U.S. crude inventories decreased by about 879,000 barrels for the week ended July 30. That compared with a build of 0.81 million barrels reported by the API for the previous week. Economists were expecting a draw of about 2.9 million barrels.
The API also showed that gasoline inventories declined by about 5.8 million last week, compared with a 3.3 million build in the prior week, and distillate stocks fell by about 720,000 barrels.
The official government inventory report due Wednesday is expected to show weekly U.S. crude supplies declined by about 3.1 million barrels last week.