On Wednesday, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said that the crude oil inventories of the country soared by more than expected last week, but gasoline and distillate stockpiles both went down.
In the week to February 7, crude oil stocks jumped by 7.5 million barrels to 435 million barrels. Analysts from the Reuters poll only estimated a 3 million barrel increase.
Crude stocks at the delivery hub at Cushing, Oklahoma climbed by 1.7 million barrels. Distillate stockpiles, including diesel and heating oil, dropped by 2 million barrels to 143.2 million barrels, against estimates for a drop of 557,000 barrels. Gasoline inventory also went down by 95,000 barrels when analysts forecast 546,000 barrels of increase.
Refinery crude run rose by 48,000 bpd in the period while the refinery utilization rates inched up by 0.6%.
After the news, oil lost some of its gain with futures up by 2.8% or USD1.38 to USD51.32/barrel at 10:53 ET. Brent crude futures went up by USD1.72 to USD55.73/barrel.
According to analyst Tony Headrick of CHS Hedging, the strong crude build was due to the recent decrease in crude exports and an increase in imports despite the growth in the refinery operations.
Last week, the US crude imports showed a net increase of 806,000 bpd.
