U.S. Oil Inventories Drop as Refinery Activity Speeds Up
June 16 2021 - 11:15AM
Dow Jones News
By Dan Molinski
U.S. inventories of crude oil fell much more than expected as
refinery activity continued to accelerate, according to data
released Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration.
Benchmark U.S. oil prices that were little changed before the
mixed report came out turned higher afterward. The Nymex
front-month crude contract for July delivery was recently up 0.5%
at $72.46 a barrel.
Crude-oil stockpiles fell by 7.4 million barrels to 466.7
million barrels, and are now about 5% below the five-year average,
the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had
predicted crude stockpiles would fall by just 2.9 million barrels
from the prior week.
Oil stored at Cushing, the delivery point for U.S. stocks, fell
by 2.2 million barrels from the previous week, to 43.6 million
barrels, the EIA said in its weekly report.
U.S. crude-oil production rose by 200,000 barrels a day from the
previous week to 11.2 million barrels a day, according to the
EIA.
Gasoline stockpiles unexpectedly rose by 2 million barrels to
243 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations for
inventories to fall by 800,000 barrels from the previous week.
Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel,
fell by 1 million barrels to 136.2 million barrels and are now
about 6% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Earlier in the
week, analysts had forecast distillate supplies would rise by
100,000 barrels from the previous week.
The refining capacity utilization rate jumped by 1.3 percentage
points from the previous week to 92.6%, compared with analysts'
forecasts for a slight 0.2 percentage-point increase from the
previous week.
U.S. oil inventories for the week ended June 11:
Crude Gasoline Distillates Refinery Use
EIA data: -7.4 +2.0 -1.0 +1.3
Forecast: -2.9 -0.8 +0.1 +0.2
Note: Numbers in millions of barrels, with the exception of
refinery use, which is in percentage points.
Write to Dan Molinski at dan.molinski@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 16, 2021 11:04 ET (15:04 GMT)
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