Investing.com -- U.S crude oil futures fell in post-settlement trading Tuesday after the American Petroleum Institute reported an increase in domestic crude stocks just as many are pinning their hopes for higher oil prices on a summer dip in crude inventories amid an expected pick up in demand.
Crude Oil WTI Futures, the U.S. benchmark, traded at $80.78 a barrel following the report after settling up 1.5% at $81.57 a barrel.
U.S. crude inventories fell by about 2.3M (NYSE:MMM) barrels for the week ended Jun. 14, compared with a draw of 2.4M barrels reported by the API for the previous week. Economists estimates weren't immediately available.
The API data also showed that gasoline stockpiles decreased by 1.08 barrels, while distillate inventories -- the class of fuels that includes diesel and heating oil -- increased by 538,000 barrels.
The official government inventory report is due Thursday at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT), a day later than usual due to the Juneteenth holiday on Wednesday.