WTI recovers toward $37 after EIA report shows surprise draw in US crude oil stocks

• Crude oil prices fell sharply on Wednesday on concerns over OPEC+ disagreement.
• Crude oil stocks in the US declined by 2.1 million barrels in the week ending May 29th.

Crude oil prices capitalized on the upbeat market mood and rose sharply during the first half of the day on Wednesday. After touching its highest level since early March at $38.15, however, the barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) staged a sharp U-turn and slumped below $36.

Nevertheless, the US Energy Information Administration's (EIA) weekly Petroleum Status Report helped WTI erase its losses. As of writing, the WTI was down only 0.2% on the day at $36.80.

OPEC headlines continue to impact oil prices

Earlier in the day, Bloomberg reported that the OPEC+ meeting was in doubt over disputes on oil-quote cheating and weighed on crude oil prices. Additionally, citing two OPEC+ sources, Reuters said that Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates were not planning to extend the deeper voluntary oil output cuts beyond June.

In its weekly report, the EIA announced that crude oil inventories in the US declined by 2.1 million barrels in the week ending May 29th compared to analysts' estimate for an increase of 3.03 million barrels. Further details of the publication revealed that oil production in the US fell by 200,000 barrels per day (BPD) to 11.2 million bpd, the lowers level since October 2018.

Technical levels to watch for