Crude oil inventories in the United States increased by 3.5 million barrels during the week ending October 10, after gaining 3.7 million barrels in the week prior, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Thursday. The increase brings commercial stockpiles to 423.8 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 a massive 7.36 million barrels.
Crude prices were trading down again on Thursday morning in the run-up to the EIA data release—rounding out a third day of price drops. At 11:53 a.m. in New York, Brent was trading at $61.52 per barrel—down $0.39 (-0.63%) on the day and a roughly $4.50 per barrel decrease over last week’s level. WTI was also trading down, by $0.34 per barrel (-0.58%) in mid-morning trade.
For total motor gasoline, the EIA reported that inventories had contracted by 300,000 barrels, after the week prior’s 1.6-million-barrel decrease. The most recent figures showed average daily gasoline production decreasing to 9.4 million barrels. For middle distillates, inventories decreased by 4.5 million barrels, with production decreasing by 577,000 barrels daily to an average of 4.6 million barrels daily. Distillate inventories had increased 600,000 barrels in the week prior and are now 7% below the five-year average for this time of year.
Total products supplied over the last four weeks slipped to 20.7 million barrels per day, down 0.5% compared to the same period last year. Gasoline demand averaged 8.7 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, while the distillate four-week average supplied rose to 4.0 million barrels—up 0.2 percent year over year.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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