Oil Prices Decline as Middle East Export Fears Ease

Oil prices declined on Tuesday after recovering Middle East export flows and a surprise build in US crude inventories offset concerns over tighter global supplies.

The EIA reported that US commercial crude inventories rose by 922k barrels last week, below the 1.02m-barrel build reported by the API but above market expectations for a 455k-barrel draw.

Refinery utilization fell 1.5 percentage points to 92.5%, while refined product markets remained relatively tight with US gasoline and distillate inventories falling by 1.68m barrels and 2.25m barrels, respectively.