EIA Rattles Oil Markets With Reports of Crude Oil, Product Builds
Crude oil inventories in the United States increased by 1.8 million barrels during the week ending September 26, after shrinking by 600,000 barrels in the week prior, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The increase brings commercial stockpiles to 416.5 million barrels according to government data, which is still 4% below the five-year average for this time of year.
The EIA’s data release follows API’s figures that were released a day earlier, which suggested that crude oil inventories contracted by 3.674 million barrels.
Crude prices were trading down on Wednesday morning in the runup to the EIA data release. At 9:59 a.m. in New York, Brent was trading at $65.17 per barrel—down $0.86 (-1.30%) on the day and a roughly $3 per barrel decrease over last week’s level. WTI was also trading down, by $0.84 per barrel (-1.35%) in mid-morning trade.
For total motor gasoline, the EIA reported an increase of 4.1 million barrels, after the week prior’s 1.1-million-barrel decrease. The most recent figures showed average daily gasoline production decreasing to 9.3 million barrels. For middle distillates, inventories increased by 600,000 barrels, with production decreasing to 5 million barrels daily. Distillate inventories decreased 1.7 million barrels in the week prior and are now 6% below the five-year average for this time of year.
Total products supplied over the last four weeks slipped to 20.3 million barrels per day, up 1.2% compared to the same period last year. Gasoline demand averaged 8.7 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, while the distillate four-week average supplied fell to 3.6 million barrels—down 4.4 percent year over year.
