The American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday afternoon reported that U.S. crude-oil inventories fell 3.48 million barrels last week, a source said, while inventories of distillates dropped 4.46 million barrels and gasoline stocks were down 4.5 million barrels. The Energy Information Administration will release official inventory data on Wednesday morning. Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts, on average, look for crude inventories to fall by 2.3 million barrels, while gasoline stocks were seen up 200,000 barrels and distillates down 1.2 million barrels. Tight supplies of distillates have been credited by analysts with underpinning crude. Oil futures rose in electronic trade, with West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery at $103.53 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after finishing at $102.41 a barrel Tuesday afternoon.
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