By Barani Krishnan

Investing.com – Message to oil bulls: The analysts aren’t always wrong, as much as they aren’t perfect.

The White House, regardless of the results it achieves, can still shake the market.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration published a figure of 1.0 million barrels in the last week. On Wednesday, oil prices dropped their lowest point in a whole week. It tripped up long term investors who were expecting a big drawdown.

A consensus was reached by oil market analysts as of Tuesday afternoon Investing.comThe EIA is expected to report on a 2.13 million barrel crude oil build in the week ending Nov 5. That was before industry group American Petroleum Institute reported a 2.49 million-barrel drawdown instead for crude — based on its own data.

The API data showed that oil bulls were already feeling buoyant after the recovery in crude prices following a selloff last Wednesday. They rushed to the markets.

In the end, the EIA data proved the analysts to be right — at least directionally despite being off by 1 million barrels in their estimate for a build.

EIA reports that oil, including diesel and petroleum products, fell by 2.613million barrels over the past week. This is in contrast to 1.133 million expected. The EIA reported that 1.555m barrels were reduced last week, which is lower than the expected draw of 1.133 million barrels.

However, it was the crude construction that stood out. Also, after weeks of falling to 3-year lows in the last month, Cushing’s delivery for U.S. crude showed a flat number.

Another reason for the tumble in oil prices — inflation, as indicated by the Consumer Price Index, expanding at its fastest rate in more than 30 years with a 6.2% jump in the year to October, driven by, of all things, high energy prices.

The impact of soaring fuel prices on an economy emerging from the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic has not been missed by President Joe Biden, who vowed to strike back against what he described as “price gouging” in the energy sector. “Inflation hurts Americans’ pocketbooks, and reversing this trend is a top priority for me,” Biden said in a statement issued by the White House.

The combination spooked the market enough to drive oil prices down by about 3%, erasing much of the previous day’s 3.5% gain in U.S. crude.

U.S. crude benchmark – WTI was 3.3% lower at $81.34 per barrel. WTI was at an all-time high of 84.70, a record for the past seven years. However, it fell on Wednesday.

Oil benchmark London-traded crude finished the session with a loss of $2.14 or 2.5% at $82.64. Brent reached an all-time high of $86.70 in the first session.

Brent and WTI saw their largest drops in one week. “It seems unlikely crude prices can break above recent highs until energy traders see whatever action will come from the Biden administration,” said Ed Moya, analyst at online trading platform OANDA. He, however, added that the “oil market deficit is firmly in place and that should prevent WTI crude from seeing a significant pullback.”

Russell Hardy CEO of Vitol, the Vitol Group said that while oil demand has returned to prepandemic levels, demand could surpass 2019 in the first quarter. Hardy stated that $100 oil could still be available in the immediate future.