On Wednesday, data from the US Energy Information Administration showed that the country’s crude oil and distillate inventories fell last week.
In the week to September 25, crude stockpiles fell by 2 million barrels to 492.4 million barrels, in stark contrast with the 1.6 million barrel increase estimated by a Reuters poll.
Supporting the drawdown was the rise in exports while imports dropped and the increasing refinery processing rate albeit fuel demand was weakening.
Net US crude imports slumped by 536,000 bpd to 1.6 million bpd. Refineries had started to edge up activity by 300,000 bpd with utilization rates climbed by 1%.
Distillate inventories, including diesel and heating oil, slumped by 3.2 million barrels, while analysts only expected a 917,000 barrel fall. Gasoline stocks rose by 683,000 barrels to 228.2 million barrels, compared with expectations for a 1.1 million barrel drop.
Product supplied went down last week, mainly on the back of the falloff in distillate demand, although gasoline product supplied rose modestly.
Reacting to the news, at 10.52 AM ET (14.52 GMT) Brent crude oil futures slipped by 0.6% or 24 cents to USD40.79/barrel while US crude futures jumped by 33 cents to USD39.63/barrel.
