Oil futures moved up slightly on Wednesday morning following the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) official weekly report showing U.S. crude inventories down by 900,000 barrels for the week ending 10 June.
On Wednesday morning, WTI crude for July delivery was up 11 cents at $48.60 per barrel on the New York Stock Exchange. WTI was trading at US$47.90 before the EIA data release.
According to the EIA Weekly Petroleum Data summary, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (not counting the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) dropped by 0.9 million barrels to 531.5 million barrels-still representing historically high inventory levels for this time of year.
The report also noted that total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 2.6 million barrels last week-also still "well above the upper limit of the average range"-with both finished gasoline inventories and blending components inventories decreasing last week.
Total commercial petroleum inventories decreased by 0.7 million barrels last week.
U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged over 16.3 million barrels per day during the week ending June 10, according to the EIA. This is 100,000 barrels per day less than the previous week's average. Refineries operated at 90.2 percent of their operating capacity, and gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.7 million barrels per day.
Oil futures had dipped back down to well below $50 on Tuesday after the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a build on U.S. crude oil supplies of 1.2 million barrels for the week ending 10 June.
By Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com
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