The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States rose by 5.6 million barrels in the week ending February 27, after adding 11.4 million barrels in the week prior. Analysts had expected a build of 2.2 million barrels.
Inventories in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) have stayed at 415.4 million barrels for multiple weeks in a row as of the week ending February 27. This is 310.1 million barrels shy of maximum capacity.
US production fell by 33,000 bpd, sinking to an average of 13.702 million bpd for week ending February 20, according to the latest EIA data. This is 200,000 bpd more than this same time last year.
At 3:36 pm ET, Brent crude was trading up on the day at $80.16 (+3.11%). Brent is now roughly $9 per barrel up from this time last week with stalled tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz and large production losses in Iraq. WTI was also trading up on the day, by $2.04 per barrel (+2.86%) at $73.27.
Gasoline inventories fell this week, shrinking by 3.3 million barrels in the week ending February 27. In the week prior, gasoline inventories fell by 1.53 million barrels. As of last week, gasoline inventories were 3% above the five-year average for this time of year, according to the latest EIA data.
Distillate inventories rose in the reporting period by 516,000 barrels, after losing 2.77 million barrels in the week prior. Distillate inventories were 5% below the five-year average as of the week ending February 20, the latest EIA data shows.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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