Last week, US crude oil, gasoline, inventories edged down while distillate soared.
According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), in the week ended August 6, crude stockpiles dropped by 447,000 barrels to 438.8 million barrels. The fall was lighter than analysts’ expectations for a 1.3 million barrel slump. In the recent few weeks, crude stocks have been on the decline due to rising demand.
Fuel consumption dipped last week on account of the declines in gasoline and jet duel supplied. However, the weekly figures are volatile and in the past four weeks, produced supplied were at 20.6 million bpd, generally in line with 2019 levels.
On Wednesday, oil prices dipped but were still about in line with the level prior to the EIA news. By 10.45 AM EDT (14.45 GMT), Brent slipped by 56 cents to USD70.06/barrel while US WTI stood at USD67.78/barrel after falling by 51 cents.
The country’s refinery crude runs climbed by 277,000 bpd last week while the utilization rate jumped by 0.5 pp. Net crude imports dipped by 796,000 bpd.
Gasoline stocks in the US fell by 1.4 million barrels to 227.5 million barrels, weaker than the predictions for a 1.7 million barrel drop. Distillate inventories grew by 1.8 million barrels against the expectations for a fall of 472,000 barrel plunge.
