U.S. Oil Inventories Rise and Gasoline Supplies Plunge

(CEP News) - U.S. crude oil inventories climbed by a smaller-than-expected margin and oil prices rose due to an unexpected fall in gasoline supplies.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said crude oil inventories increased 717k in the week ending Feb. 20 compared to the +1250k consensus estimate. It was the seventh rise in oil inventories in the past eight weeks.

Crude prices were already higher by 60 cents, but jumped an additional 35 cents to a session high of $40.86 per barrel in the moments following the report.

The gasoline figures were bullish for the energy complex; the EIA said supplies fell by 3322k compared to expectations of a flat reading. Distillate supplies increased 882k compared to forecasts for a 1200k drawdown.

The fall in gasoline inventories comes despite a decline in refinery utilization, which was down 0.89 percentage points, following a 0.72 percentage point increase last week. Analysts were expecting a 0.10 pp decline in utilization. Refineries operated at 81.4% of capacity. Crude oil imports fell by 0.024 million barrels per day to 8.8 mbpd.

The EIA figures showed gasoline demand was higher in year-over-year terms. At 9.0 million barrels per day, gasoline demand was up 1.7% from the same period last year.

There continues to be a huge supply overhang, with crude inventories “above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year,” according to the EIA.

Gasoline inventories are “in the lower half of the average range,” while distillate inventories are “above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year,” the EIA revealed.

All data taken at 10:38 a.m. EST.

By Adam Button, abutton@economicnews.ca, edited by Sarah Sussman, ssussman@economicnews.ca

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Posted in Categories: Commodities, Economy, Releases, USA.

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