Crude oil inventories in the United States decreased by 9.3 million barrels during the week ending September 12, after adding 3.9 million barrels in the week prior, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The draw is one of the largest weekly draws seen over the last few years, and brings commercial stockpiles to 415.4 million barrels according to government data, which is 5% 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 contracted by 3.42 million barrels.
Crude prices were trading down on Wednesday morning immediately following the EIA data release. At 10:20 a.m. in New York, Brent was trading at $68.41 per barrel—down $0.06 (-0.09%) on the day and a roughly $1.70 per barrel dip from last week’s level. WTI was also trading down, by $0.10 per barrel (-0.15%) in mid-morning trade.
For total motor gasoline, the EIA reported a decrease of 2.3 million barrels, after the week prior’s 1.5-million-barrel increase. The most recent figures showed average daily gasoline production decreasing to 9.4 million barrels. For middle distillates, inventories increased by 4 million barrels, with production decreasing to 5 million barrels daily. Distillate inventories had increased by 4.7 million barrels in the week prior and despite to weeks of large gains, are still 8% 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, up 1.7% 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 fell to 3.7 million barrels—down 1.8 percent year over year.
Crude oil prices jumped following the data.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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