By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com -- U.S. crude oil inventories fell sharply last week, API data showed Tuesday, at a time when fresh worries about a slowdown in the global economy hurting energy demand remain front and center.
West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, traded at $95.51 per barrel following the report after settling down $1.72 at $94.98 per barrel.
U.S. crude inventories decreased by about 4.0 million barrels for the week ended July 22. That compared with a build of 1.9 million barrels reported by the API for the previous week. Economists were expecting a decrease of about 1.1 million barrels.
The fall in crude inventories arrived just as the International Monetary Fund cut its outlook on global growth and warned that high inflation threatens to tip the global economy into recession.
The IMT cut its forecast on global GDP growth to 3.2% in 2022 from a forecast of 3.6% issued in April.
The official government inventory report due Wednesday is expected to show weekly U.S. crude supplies fell by about 1.0 million barrels last week.