Crude oil inventories in the United States decreased by 3.0 million barrels during the week ending August 1, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The build brings commercial stockpiles to 423.7 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 shrank by 4.2 million barrels.
Crude prices were trading up ahead of the EIA data release. At 10:07 a.m. in New York, Brent was trading at $68.72 per barrel—up $1.08 (+1.60%) on the day but a $4 per barrel loss from last week’s level. WTI was also trading up, by $1.42 per barrel (+2.18%) in mid-morning trade.
For total motor gasoline, the EIA reported a decrease of 1.3 million barrels, with daily production decreasing to 9.8 million barrels. For middle distillates, inventories fell 600,000 barrels, with production decreasing to 5.1 million barrels daily. Distillate inventories are still 16% below the five-year average for this time of year.
Total products supplied over the last four weeks came in at 20.6 million barrels per day, up 1.6% compared to the same period last year. Gasoline demand averaged 8.9 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, while the distillate four-week average supplied was 3.5 million barrels—down 3.8 percent year over year.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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