By Paulo Trevisani and Anthony Harrup
U.S. crude oil and gasoline inventories rose last week against expectations of a decline, according to data released Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration.
Commercial crude oil stocks excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve rose by 3.6 million barrels to 460.7 million barrels in the week ended June 21 and were about 2% below the five-year average for the time of year, the EIA said.
Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted crude stockpiles would fall by 2.3 million barrels.
Oil held in the SPR increased by 1.3 million barrels to 372.2 million barrels, the highest level since the end of 2022.
Oil stored at Cushing, Okla., the Nymex delivery hub, fell by 226,000 barrels to 33.9 million barrels. Refinery capacity use was down by 1.3 percentage points to 92.2% in a third straight weekly decline. Refinery runs were forecast to be unchanged in the Journal survey.
The EIA estimated U.S. crude oil production at 13.2 million barrels a day, unchanged from the previous week. Crude imports fell by 443,000 barrels a day to 6.6 million barrels a day, which was offset by a 508,000 barrels-a-day drop in exports to 3.9 million barrels a day.
Gasoline inventories increased by 2.7 million barrels to 233.9 million barrels, more than returning the 2.3 million barrel draw seen the previous week, and were in line with the five-year average for the time of year. Gasoline stocks were expected to fall by 1.2 million barrels.
Gasoline demand was just below 9 million barrels a day, or 417,000 barrels a day less than the week before.
"That was a surprise given the strong number we saw the previous week. As we head into the Fourth of July there was an expectation that the high demand numbers would have held up at least through next week," said John Kilduff of Again Capital.
With the refineries still running at a high rate, to build up crude inventories while also putting oil into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve points to a relatively well supplied situation, Kilduff said. "It made for a bearish report across the board."
Distillate fuel stocks fell by 377,000 barrels to 121.3 million barrels, and were around 9% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Distillate fuel inventories were forecast to decline by 300,000 barrels.
Change in U.S. oil inventories for the week ended June 21:
Crude Gasoline Distillates Refinery Use
EIA data: 3.6 2.7 -0.4 -1.3
Forecast: -2.3 -1.2 -0.3 unch Note: Numbers in millions of barrels, with the exception of refinery use, which is in percentage points.
Write to Paulo Trevisani at paulo.trevisani@wsj.com and Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
06-26-24 1156ET
