By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com -- U.S. crude stockpiles dropped sharply last week, snapping two-weeks of gains at a time when fears of a supply shortage are receding amid fading bets on the European Union joining the U.S. oil embargo against Russia.
West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, traded at $108.56 barrel following the report, after settling 36 cents lower $111.76 a barrel.
U.S. crude inventories fell by 4.3 million barrels for the week ended March. 17. That compared with a build of 3.8 million barrels reported by the API for the previous week. Economists were expecting a build of about 25,000 barrels.
The move lower in oil prices on Tuesday, reversed some gains from a day earlier, as the prospect of the EU banning Russia oil is fading. Some of the bloc's members including Germany, which is relies heavily on Russian oil and gas, aren't too keen on joining the embargo at time when energy prices have surged dramatically.
The API data also showed that gasoline inventories fell by 626,000 barrels last week, and distillate stocks decreased by 826,000 barrels.
The official government inventory report due Wednesday is expected to show weekly U.S. crude supplies increased by about 114,000 barrels last week.