Crude oil inventories in the United States increased by 3.4 million barrels during the week ending January 14, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The decrease brings commercial stockpiles to 422.4 million barrels according to government data, which is 3% 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 5.27 million barrels.
Crude prices were trading up again on Wednesday morning after gaining significant ground on Tuesday. The catalyst is a combination of factors, including concerns about a possible oil production disruption in Iran amid protests. At 7:42 a.m. in New York, Brent was trading at $65.88 per barrel—up $0.41 (+0.63%) on the day and up more than $5.25 per barrel week over week. WTI was also trading up, by $0.32 per barrel (+0.52%) in early trade.
For total motor gasoline, the EIA reported that inventories had increased by 9 million barrels. The most recent figures showed average daily gasoline production increased to 9.0 million barrels. For middle distillates, inventories fell slightly, with production decreasing by 18,000 barrels daily to an average of 5.3 million barrels daily.
Total products supplied—a proxy for U.S. oil demand—came in at 20 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, down 1.1% compared to the same period last year. Gasoline demand averaged 8.5 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, while the distillate four-week average supplied averaged 3.7 million barrels—up 2.2 percent year over year.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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