Crude oil inventories in the United States decreased by 1.8 million barrels during the week ending December 5, after adding a modest 600,000 barrels in the week prior, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The decrease brings commercial stockpiles to 425.7 million barrels according to government data, which is 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 fell by 4.8 million barrels.
Crude prices were trading lower on Wednesday morning despite yesterday’s inventory data. At 10:18 a.m. in New York, Brent was trading at $61.61 per barrel—down $0.33 (-0.53%) on the day. Brent is trading down $1.30 per barrel compared to this time last week. WTI was also trading down, by $0.32 per barrel (-0.58%) in early trade.
For total motor gasoline, the EIA reported that inventories had increased by 6.4 million barrels, on top of the 4.5 million barrel gain in the week prior. The most recent figures showed average daily gasoline production decreasing to 9.6 million barrels. For middle distillates, inventories increased by 2.5 million barrels, with production increasing by 380,000 barrels daily to an average of 5.4 million barrels daily. Distillate inventories are now 7% below the five-year average for this time of year.
Total products supplied—a proxy for U.S. oil demand—rose to an average of 20.4 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, up 1.6% 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 3.4 percent year over year.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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