According to a preliminary survey released on Monday, US crude oil stocks are expected to decline for the eighth consecutive week last week, and gasoline stocks may also decline.

On average, the five analysts surveyed predicted that U.S. crude oil inventories were expected to fall by about 4.3 million barrels in the week ending July 9.

Earlier, in the week ending July 2, U.S. crude oil inventories fell 6.9 million barrels to 445.5 million barrels, the lowest level since February 2020, and far exceeded analysts’ forecast of a decline of 4 million barrels.

API released its weekly oil inventory report at 4:30 Beijing time on Wednesday, and EIA will released its inventory report at 22:30 Beijing time on Wednesday.

Analysts expect U.S. gasoline inventories to fall by about 1.7 million barrels last week.

Distillate stocks, including diesel and heating oil, increased about 1.3 million barrels last week.

Capacity utilization was expected to rise 0.4 percentage point last week from 92.2% in the week ending July 2.