U.S. Oil Inventories Surprisingly Rise as Refinery Activity Slows
January 26 2022 - 11:22AM
Dow Jones News
By Dan Molinski
U.S. crude-oil inventories unexpectedly increased last week as
refinery activity dropped to the lowest since early November,
according to data released Wednesday by the Energy Information
Administration.
Benchmark U.S. oil prices that were higher before the mixed
report was released maintained those gains afterward. The Nymex
front-month crude contract for March delivery was recently up 1.8%
at $87.16 a barrel.
Crude-oil stockpiles rose by 2.4 million barrels to 416.2
million barrels, and remain about 8% 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, Okla., the delivery point for U.S.
stocks, fell by 1.8 million barrels from the previous week, to 31.7
million barrels, the EIA said in its weekly report.
U.S. crude-oil production fell by 100,000 barrels a day from the
previous week to 11.6 million barrels a day, according to the
EIA.
Gasoline stockpiles climbed by 1.3 million barrels to 247.9
million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations for
inventories to increase by 2.3 million barrels from the previous
week.
Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel,
fell by 2.8 million barrels to 125.2 million barrels, and are now
about 17% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts were
forecasting distillates inventories would fall by 1.6 million
barrels from the previous week.
The refining capacity utilization rate fell by 0.4 percentage
points from the previous week to 87.7%, compared with analysts'
forecasts for a 0.3 percentage-point decrease.
U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Jan. 21:
Crude Gasoline Distillates Refinery Use
EIA data: +2.4 +1.3 -2.8 -0.4
Forecast: -0.8 +2.3 -1.6 -0.3
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
January 26, 2022 11:07 ET (16:07 GMT)
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