By Barani Krishnan

-- stockpiles had another multi-million barrel build last week, trade group API said Wednesday, bucking market expectations for a drop in inventories for a second week in a row amid questionable energy demand during an unseasonably warm winter.

rose by 7.6M barrels during the week ended January 13,  the API, which stands for the American Petroleum Institute, said. In the previous week to January 6, the API reported a crude build of 14.865M barrels.

Specifically for the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery point for U.S. crude, the API reported a stockpile build of 3.7M barrels, after the previous week’s rise of 2.3M barrels. 

The API inventory report also showed a 2.8M barrel rise in gasoline stocks for last week and a 1.8M-barrel deficit in distillate stockpiles.

The API numbers serve as a precursor to official inventory data on the same due from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA, on Thursday.

For last week, analysts tracked by expect the EIA to report a drop of 593,000 barrels, versus the 18.962M barrel rise reported during the week to Jan. 6.

On the front, the consensus is for a build of 2.529M barrels to add to the 4.114-M barrel build in the previous week.

With , the expectation is for a climb of 122,000 barrels versus the prior week’s deficit of 1.069M barrels.