On Wednesday, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said that last week, the country’s crude oil inventories fell due to soaring imports and refining activities.
In the week ended August 21, crude stockpiles slumped to the lowest level since April by 4.7 million barrels to 507.8 million barrels. A poll held by Reuters only estimated a 3.7 million barrels decrease.
The reading was attributed to the skyrocketing crude exports by 1.2 million bpd, the highest since February 2019 while the net crude imports went down by around 1 million bpd.
Analyst Bob Yawger of Mizuho estimated the big jump in exports was driven by the upcoming Hurricane Laura, which led to market players getting as many crudes out of the US Gulf of Mexico as fast as they can.
However, refinery crude runs climbed last week by 225,000 bpd, and utilization rates inched up by 1.1% to the highest level since March, at 82% of total capacity even when oil majors in the Gulf have started evacuating offshore oil facilities on Friday.
Likewise, the stockpiles of gasoline also went down by 4.6 million barrels, exceeding analysts’ forecast for a 1.5 million barrel fall.
Looking ahead, analyst John Kilduff of Again Capital LLC expected a hit on refined products’ inventory next week as many refiners are going into a full shutdown.
