U.S. Oil Inventories Edge Lower, Fuel Supplies Surge
December 08 2021 - 11:23AM
Dow Jones News
By Dan Molinski
U.S. crude-oil inventories declined slightly last week but
stockpiles of gasoline and other fuels rose sharply, according to
data released Wednesday by the Energy Information
Administration.
Benchmark U.S. oil prices that were slightly lower before the
mixed report was released turned slightly higher afterward. The
Nymex front-month crude contract for January delivery was recently
up 0.1% at $72.09 a barrel.
Crude-oil stockpiles fell by 241,000 barrels to 432.9 million
barrels, and are now about 7% below the five-year average, the EIA
said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted
crude stockpiles would fall by a larger, 1.3 million barrels from
the prior week.
Oil stored at Cushing, the delivery point for U.S. stocks,
jumped by 2.4 million barrels from the previous week, to 30.9
million barrels, the EIA said in its weekly report.
U.S. crude-oil production increased by 100,000 barrels a day to
11.7 million barrels a day, the highest since May 2020, according
to EIA.
Gasoline stockpiles jumped by 3.9 million barrels to 219.3
million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations for
inventories to increase by 1.7 million barrels from the previous
week.
Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel,
rose by 2.7 million barrels to 126.6 million barrels, and are now
about 7% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts were
forecasting distillates inventories would rise by 1.2 million
barrels from the previous week.
The refining capacity utilization rate rose by 1 percentage
point from the previous week to 89.8%, compared with analysts'
forecasts for a 0.5 percentage point increase.
U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Dec. 3:
Crude Gasoline Distillates Refinery Use
EIA data: -0.2 +3.9 +2.7 +1.0
Forecast: -1.3 +1.7 +1.2 +0.5
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 08, 2021 11:08 ET (16:08 GMT)
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