U.S. crude oil inventories decrease last week: API

HOUSTON, march 19 (Xinhua) -- The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a drop of 2.13 million barrels in the U.S. crude oil inventories for the Week ending march 15.

In the previous Week ending march 8, API reported a decrease of 2.58 million barrels of crude oil inventories.

Oil prices were mixed on Tuesday. The West Texas Intermediate for April delivery decreased 0.06 dollar to settle at 59.03 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for May delivery increased 0.07 dollar to close at 67.61 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

In its latest monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook released last Week, EIA estimated that U.S. crude oil production averaged 11.9 million barrels per day in February, down slightly from the January average.

The agency forecast that U.S. crude oil production will average 12.3 million barrels per day in 2019 and 13.0 million barrels per day in 2020, with most of the growth coming from the Permian region of Texas and New Mexico.