Official data released early on Wednesday confirms expectations of a U.S. crude oil inventory draw, with the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showing inventories down by over 3.2 million barrels for the week ending 3 June.
The EIA's latest weekly status report, released at 10:30am EST, reported a 3.226-million draw on U.S. crude inventories, while the consensus had called for a drop between 2.7 million to 3.4 million barrels. The new data puts U.S. crude oil inventories at 532.5 million barrels-a figure that is still historically high for this time of year.
The EIA's report follows Tuesday's inventory report from the American Petroleum Institute (API), which shows a draw of 3.56 million barrels, slightly more than the official figures just released. Related: An Oil Price Rebound Is Not Enough For The Bakken
Oil rose above $50 on Tuesday, following the API report, and was holding steady, close to $52 in early Wednesday trading prior to the EIA's weekly status report release.
The Weekly Petroleum Status Report showed gasoline inventories with a build of +1.01 million and distillate inventories with a build of +1.754 million.
U.S. Crude refinery inputs averaged 16.4 barrels per day, according to Wednesday's numbers. That number is 211,000 barrels per day more than the previous week's average. Refineries were at 90.9% of their operable capacity this past week, and gasoline production increased, averaging over 10.1 million barrels per day. Related: India Putting Floor Beneath Oil Prices As Demand Continues To Soar
U.S. crude oil imports averaged 7.7 million barrels per day last week, which was down by 134,000 barrels per day from the week before. Total motor gasoline imports averaged 815,000 barrels per day. Distillate fuel imports averaged 167,000 barrels per day last week.
Total commercial petroleum inventories increased by 3.2 million barrels.
The EIA notes that total motor gasoline inventories increased by 1.0 million barrels last week, and are well above the upper limit of the average range.
By Lincoln Brown for Oilprice.com
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Lincoln Brown is the former News and Program Director for KVEL radio in Vernal, Utah. He hosted “The Lincoln Brown Show” and was penned a… More