On the week ended June 5, US crude oil stockpiles unexpectedly soared to the record high as refiners powered up in imports and exports slumped to the lowest level since November 2019.
According to the Energy Information Administration, crude inventories excluding the US strategic reserves surged by 5.7 million barrels to 538.1 million barrels.
Refiners imported Saudi Arabian oil on an average of more than 15 million bpd for three weeks straight, the level last seen in 2013. These shipments were made when Saudi and Russia were involved in a price war in March-April resulting in US prices plunging to USD-40/barrel.
In the Gulf Coast import-export and refining hub, crude stockpiles jumped by 6.9 million barrels to a record high of 303.7 million barrels. The US exports went down to the lowest since November at 2.4 million bpd, with overall net crude imports hiked by 1 million bpd.
In the US, gasoline stockpiles increased by 866,000 barrels, while analysts only expected a 71,000 barrels increase. Distillate inventories rose by 1.6 million barrels.
Gasoline consumption rebounded to 7.9 million bpd, down by 20% year-on-year but still improving from the previous weeks. Overall gasoline demand showed a 16% drop yearly.
Refinery utilization rates jumped by 1.3% to 73.1% of capacity.
Reacting to the data, Wednesday oil prices slumped as US WTI crude futures lost 2% to USD38.18/barrel while international benchmark Brent fell by 1.4% to USD40.60/barrel.
