On Wednesday, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said that the country’s crude oil and fuel inventories rose last week on the back of returning output after the recent storms.
In the week to September 24, crude stocks jumped by 4.6 million barrels to 418.5 million barrels. The result was way higher than analysts’ predictions for a 1.7 million-barrel drop.
The reading was affected by the rebound of US crude output by 500,000 bpd to 11.1 million bpd. It was in line with the levels seen before Hurricane Ida around a month ago.
In the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub, crude stocks inched up by 131,000 barrels.
Last week’s refinery crude runs gained 68,000 bpd while the refinery utilization rate expanded by 0.6% to 88.1% of total capacity.
The US gasoline stockpiles rose moderately by 193,000 barrels to 221.8 million barrels, higher compared to the expectations for a 1.4 million-barrel rise. Gasoline product supplied was 9.2 million bpd over the last four weeks, or about 1% below pre-pandemic levels seen in 2019. For the previous two weeks, gasoline supplied had fallen below 9 million bpd, driving anxiety up regarding a softening demand.
Distillate inventories advanced by 385,000 barrels in the week to 129.7 million barrels. Analysts only estimated a fall of 1.6 million barrels.
