US Crude Inventories Fall 3.06M Barrels Last Week, EIA Says

The draw landed short of the consensus Bloomberg expectation but dwarfed the analyst forecast, a split that says more about divergent survey samples than about physical tightness. Coming after the prior week's much larger decline, the smaller draw suggests the pace of stockpile erosion may be moderating, though a single week is thin evidence. For crude and refined-product markets, the gap between the two forecasts is the detail worth watching: whether subsequent EIA prints converge toward the Bloomberg or the analyst view will shape how much weight the market gives either going forward.