U.S. commercial crude oil inventories fell by 3.1 million barrels in the week ending October 16, the EIA reported. Gasoline stocks also declined, while distillate stocks rose. Zaye Capital Markets CIO Naeem Aslam said the draw exceeded expectations and that the distillate build suggests demand strength is not uniform.
U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), dropped by 3.1 million barrels from the week ending October 9 to the week ending October 16. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) put stocks at 412.517 million barrels in its weekly petroleum status report, released on October 21.
Crude and product stocks shrink
Commercial crude stocks were 0.7% lower week on week and 2.4% lower year on year. Crude in the SPR stood at 282.7 million barrels on October 16, a decrease of 30.8% from a year earlier.
Total petroleum stocks stood at 1.498 billion barrels, down 8.8 million barrels week on week. Within products, the EIA said gasoline inventories decreased 3.0 million barrels, while distillate inventories increased 1.7 million barrels.
Refiners run at 93.4% utilization
For the week ending October 16, U.S. refineries processed 16.6 million barrels per day, at 93.4% capacity utilization. Meanwhile, crude oil imports decreased by 291,000 barrels per day to 5.8 million barrels per day.
Analysts weigh the draw
Ole Hansen, Saxo Bank Head of Commodity Strategy, noted that gasoline inventories dropped to their lowest seasonal level since 2014. He added that U.S. crude production slumped by 0.4 million barrels per day to 13.27 million barrels per day as Hurricane Isaias forced temporary shut-ins.
Naeem Aslam, CIO at Zaye Capital Markets, said the 3.06 million barrel draw substantially exceeded expectations for an approximately 0.8 million barrel reduction. He said the firm believes the figures support near-term crude oil prices, although the distillate build suggests that demand strength is not uniform.
Macquarie strategists, by contrast, had forecast that U.S. crude inventories would be down by 10.2 million barrels for the same week.
Source: Rigzone
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