On Wednesday, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said that last week, the country’s crude oil and fuel stockpiles posted a sharp fall as Hurricane Laura shut offshore production and refining facilities.
At the week ended August 28, crude stockpiles slumped by 9.4 million barrels to 498.4 million barrels. Analysts only predicted a 1.9 million barrel fall. Production fell by the lowest record by 1.1 million bpd to 9.7 million bpd, the lowest level since January 2018 due to the shutdown of most US offshore facilities ahead of the hurricane.
At the US Gulf, imports touched a record low at 781,000 bpd after plunging by 501,000 bpd. The country’s net crude imports fell by 655,000 bpd.
Gasoline inventories’ slump exceeded expectations by 4.3 million barrels last week. Distillate inventories also fell by 1.7 million barrels, while analysts only estimated a 1.4 million barrel slip.
Product supplied was also lower, which might prompt refiners to slim their productions.
Refinery crude runs nosedived by 844,000 bpd while the utilization rates dropped by 5.3% to 76.7% of the total capacity.
Looking ahead, Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho forecast that there would be a pile up of crude which would put pressure on prices.
