Oil Market Confused After Latest EIA Report

For the third week in a row the Wednesday EIA numbers disagreed with the Tuesday American Petroleum Institute survey, in the case of crude and gasoline the sign of the values are opposite. Here's the action since yesterday's API release at 4:30 EDT, via FinViz:

This was the reason for my dubiosity after yesterday's numbers:

WTI currently $47.79 down 70 cents. We'll see how tomorrow's EIA storage report matches up.

Currently $48.16 down 33 cents.
From ZeroHedge:

Oil Spikes After DOE Inventories Data Refutes API For 3rd Week In A Row, Production Drops

Following last night's across the board inventory builds reported by API, oil prices have bounced modestly but remain lower (below $48) ahead of DOE's data. However, for the 3rd week running, DOE data refuted API showing a smaller than expected 933k draw in crude inventories and a large draw in gasoline (-2.62mm vs API's +2.25mm). Distillates inventories rose for the 2nd week in a row and Cushing saw its biggest build in 5 weeks. However, oil prices are rising on the data as well as the fact that US production resumed its decline after last week's brief increase.

API:

• Crude +1.16mm (-2.33mm exp)
• Cushing +664k (-600k exp, +234k Genscape)
• Gasoline +2.254mm
• Distillates +3.725mm

DOE:

• Crude -933k (-2.33mm exp)
• Cushing +904k (-600k exp, +234k Genscape)
• Gasoline -2.62mm
• Distillates +786k

Once again DOE data opposes API data...though we note Cushing saw a large build...MORE