Crude oil inventories in the United States decreased by 2.4 million barrels during the week ending August 22, after falling 6 million barrels in the week prior, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The build brings commercial stockpiles to 418.3 million barrels according to government data, which is 6% below the five-year average for this time of year.
The EIA’s data release follows API’s figures that were released a day earlier, which suggested that crude oil inventories contracted by 974,000 barrels.
Crude prices were trading up ahead of the EIA data release. At 10:15 a.m. in New York, Brent was trading at $67.57 per barrel—up $0.35 (0.52%) on the day and a roughly $1 per barrel gain from last week’s level. WTI was also trading up, by $0.40 per barrel (+0.63%) in mid-morning trade.
For total motor gasoline, the EIA reported a decrease of 1.2 million barrels, after the week prior’s 2.7-million-barrel dip. The most recent figures showed average daily gasoline production increasing to 10 million barrels. For middle distillates, inventories decreased by 1.8 million barrels, with production decreasing to 5.2 million barrels daily. Distillate inventories had increased 2.3 million barrels in the week prior and are now 15% below the five-year average for this time of year.
Total products supplied over the last four weeks rose to 21.2 million barrels per day, up 2.5% compared to the same period last year. Gasoline demand averaged 9 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, while the distillate four-week average supplied at 3.9 million barrels—up 7.7 percent year over year.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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