On Wednesday, the US Energy Information Administration said that the country’s crude oil stockpiles jumped for the week ended June 12 while distillate stocks fell.
Crude oil stockpiles jumped by 1.2 million barrels to 539.3 million barrels last week, in sharp contrast from a Reuters’ poll of a 152,000 barrels slump.
The figure put crude stocks at another record even when imports tailed off and another drawdown at the delivery hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, occurred. The stocks in the hub went down by 2.6 million barrels.
Distillate inventories, on the other hand, shrank by 1.4 million barrels, while the market expected a 2.4 million barrels increase.
Analyst Bob Yawger from Mizuho said that the draw in the Cushing hub put a cap on the inventory rise, and that was what the market needed as it stopped a 10-week series of builds.
The country’s gasoline stocks slipped by 1.7 million barrels, also contrasting with expectations for a 17,000 barrels drop.
Weekly production figures also showed a significant fall due to the Cristobal storm as it lost 600,000 bpd to 10.5 million bpd.
Net crude imports dipped by 245,000 bpd. Refinery crude runs increased by 116,000 bpd while the rates of refinery utilization grew by 0.7%.
Reacting to the data, US crude futures fell by 1% or 41 cents to USD37.97/barrel while Brent dropped by 32 cents to USD40.56/barrel at 14.47 GMT.
