Baku. 5 April. REPORT.AZ/ Crude inventories in the United States dropped a more than expected 1.83 million barrels at the end of last week, the American Petroleum Institute (API) said Tuesday, featuring largest decline in 2017.

The data comes ahead of a closely watched weekly inventory report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday at 18:30 Baku time. Decline of oil stocks may exceed 1.5-million, earlier forecasted by analysts.

Experts Group of Report News Agency notes that oil prices jumped over $54/barrel from earlier $50/barrel as rumors over US crude oil stocks spread. OPEC willing to extend Wien agreement in April meeting can be considered another reason of soaring prices.

The experts predict that gradual rise of prices to hit $65/barrel in May: “As we noted earlier, Brent oil have already crossed $50.47 point and started upward trend”.