U.S. Oil Inventories Decline, Production Rises
December 01 2021 - 11:21AM
Dow Jones News
By Dan Molinski
U.S. crude-oil inventories decreased last week but domestic
production rose to an 18-month-high, according to data released
Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration.
Benchmark U.S. oil prices that were sharply higher before the
mixed-to-bearish report was released reduced some of those gains
afterward. The Nymex front-month crude contract for January
delivery was recently up 3.1% at $68.25 a barrel.
Crude-oil stockpiles fell by 909,000 barrels to 433.1 million
barrels, and are now about 6% below the five-year average, the EIA
said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted
crude stockpiles would fall by 800,000 barrels from the prior
week.
Oil stored at Cushing, the delivery point for U.S. stocks, rose
by 1.2 million barrels from the previous week, to 28.5 million
barrels, the EIA said in its weekly report.
U.S. crude-oil production increased by 100,000 barrels a day to
11.6 million barrels a day, the highest since May 2020, according
to EIA.
Gasoline stockpiles jumped by 4 million barrels to 215.4 million
barrels, compared with analysts' expectations for inventories to
decrease by 500,000 barrels from the previous week.
Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel,
rose by 2.2 million barrels to 123.9 million barrels, and are now
about 9% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts were
forecasting distillates inventories would be unchanged from the
previous week.
The refining capacity utilization rate rose by a
smaller-than-forecast 0.2 percentage points from the previous week
to 88.8%, compared with analysts' forecasts for a 0.6 percentage
point increase.
U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Nov. 26:
Crude Gasoline Distillates Refinery Use
EIA data: -0.9 +4.0 +2.2 +0.2
Forecast: -0.8 -0.5 unch +0.6
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
December 01, 2021 11:06 ET (16:06 GMT)
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