According to the Energy Information Administration, U.S. inventories of crude oil experienced a sharp decline last week, despite unexpected slowdown in refinery activity. This news has had a positive impact on benchmark U.S. oil prices, which have maintained their gains even after the release of the report. The Nymex front-month crude contract for October delivery is currently priced at $81.80 per barrel, representing a 0.8% increase.
The EIA report states that commercial crude-oil stockpiles reduced by 10.6 million barrels, reaching a total of 422.9 million barrels. This figure is now 3% below the five-year average. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted a smaller decline of 2 million barrels from the previous week.
The oil stored at Cushing, Oklahoma - the delivery point for U.S. stocks - also saw a decrease of 1.5 million barrels, now totaling 29.2 million barrels.
Despite these positive trends, U.S. crude-oil production remained unchanged from the previous week, holding steady at its three-year-high of 12.8 million barrels per day.
Gasoline stockpiles, on the other hand, witnessed a minimal decline of just 214,000 barrels to 217.4 million barrels, falling short of analysts' expectations of a 1.3-million-barrel decrease.
As for distillate stocks, predominantly diesel fuel, they saw an increase of 1.2 million barrels, totaling 117.9 million barrels. However, this remains approximately 15% below the five-year average. Analysts had predicted a fall of 500,000 barrels in distillate inventories.
In an unexpected turn of events, the refining capacity utilization rate decreased by 1.2 percentage points from the previous week to reach 93.3%, contrary to expectations of a 0.2-percentage-point increase.
Summary of U.S. oil inventories for the week ended August 25:
- Crude: -10.6 million barrels
- Gasoline: -0.2 million barrels
- Distillates: +1.2 million barrels
- Refinery Use: -1.2 percentage points
Note: Numbers are in millions of barrels, except for refinery use, which is in percentage points.
