On Wednesday, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said that the country’s crude oil inventories last week plunged to the lowest level in almost three years.
In the week ended September 17, the US crude stocks dropped by 3.5 million barrels to 414 million barrels. The reading exceeded the expectations for a 2.4 million barrels fall and was the lowest level since October 2018.
In the delivery hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, crude stocks dipped by 1.5 million barrels in the period.
The country’s refining activity and oil output had shown a comeback to the levels seen pre-hurricane. Crude production soared by 500,000 bpd in the week to 10.6 million bpd after Gulf offshore facilities continued operations.
Refinery crude runs jumped by 960,000 bpd last week. The utilization rates skyrocketed by 5.4% to 87.5% of capacity as a result.
Distillate inventories also fell, by 2.6 million barrels, contrasting with the expectations for a drop of 1.2 million barrels.
On the contrary, US gasoline stocks jumped by 3.5 million barrels to 221.6 million barrels, against the expectations for a 1.1 million barrel drop.
Overall product supplied climbed to 21.1 million bpd and averaged at almost 21 million bpd in the past four weeks.
The country’s net crude exports last week inched up by 519,000 bpd.
Reacting to the EIA report, by 10.47 AM ET (14.47 GMT), Wednesday oil prices gained with US crude rose by 1.4% to USD71.47/barrel while Brent advanced by 1.4% to USD75.43/barrel.
