Crude oil inventories in the United States increased by 3.7 million barrels during the week ending October 3, after gaining 1.8 million barrels in the week prior, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The increase brings commercial stockpiles to 420.3 million barrels according to government data, which is still 4% 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 grew by 2.780 million barrels.
Crude prices were trading up on Wednesday morning in the run-up to the EIA data release. At 10:23 a.m. in New York, Brent was trading at $66.0 per barrel—up $0.62 (+0.95%) on the day and a roughly $1 per barrel decrease over last week’s level. WTI was also trading up, by $0.68 per barrel (+1.10%) in mid-morning trade.
For total motor gasoline, the EIA reported that inventories had contracted by 1.6 million barrels, after the week prior’s large 4.1-million-barrel increase. The most recent figures showed average daily gasoline production increasing to 9.8 million barrels. For middle distillates, inventories decreased by 2.0 million barrels, with production increasing by 210,000 barrels daily to an average of 5.2 million barrels daily. Distillate inventories had increased 600,000 barrels in the week prior and are still 6% below the five-year average for this time of year.
Total products supplied over the last four weeks rose to 20.9 million barrels per day, up 1.7% compared to the same period last year. Gasoline demand averaged 8.8 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, while the distillate four-week average supplied rose to 3.8 million barrels—down 1.1 percent year over year.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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