Oil inventories in huge upside surprise, rising by 8.5M barrels last week : API

Investing.com — U.S. crude stockpiles increased much more than expected last week, the API reported Tuesday, but product inventories including gasoline fell more than expected.

, the U.S. benchmark, traded at $77.83 a barrel following the report after settling up 1.2% at $77.98 a barrel.

rose by about 8.5 million barrels for the week ended Feb. 9, compared with a build of 674,000 barrels reported by the API for the previous week. Economists were expecting an increase of about 2.6M barrels. 

The API data also showed that gasoline inventories fell by about 7.2 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles fell by 4.0M barrels, confounding expectations for a draw of about 1 million barrels and 2.2M barrels, respectively.  

The official government inventory report due Wednesday is expected to show weekly U.S. decreased by about 2.6M barrels last week.