By Dan Molinski

U.S. crude-oil inventories fell more than expected last week as already-strong refinery activity ramped up even more, according to data released Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration.

Benchmark U.S. oil prices that were higher before the mixed-to-bullish report reduced those gains afterward. The Nymex front-month crude contract for August delivery was recently up 0.6% at $112.51 a barrel.

Crude-oil stockpiles fell by 2.8 million barrels, to 415.6 million barrels, and are now about 13% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted crude stockpiles would fall by just 800,000 barrels from the prior week.

Oil stored at Cushing, Okla., the delivery point for U.S. stocks, decreased by 700,000 barrels from the previous week, to 21.3 million barrels, the EIA said in its weekly report.

U.S. crude-oil production rose to its highest since mid-April of 2020, climbing by 100,000 barrels a day to 12.1 million barrels a day, according to the EIA.

Gasoline stockpiles rose by 2.6 million barrels to 221.6 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations for inventories to decrease by 800,000 barrels from the previous week.

Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, rose by 2.6 million barrels to 112.4 million barrels, and are now about 20% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts were forecasting distillates inventories would rise by just 200,000 barrels from the previous week.

The refining capacity utilization rate jumped by 1 percentage point from the previous week, to a nearly three-year-high of 95%, and compares to analysts' forecasts for just a 0.5 percentage-point increase.

 
U.S. oil inventories for the week ended June 24: 
 
             Crude  Gasoline  Distillates  Refinery Use 
EIA data:     -2.8      +2.6        +2.6           +1.0 
Forecast:     -0.8      -0.8        +0.2           +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

June 29, 2022 11:14 ET (15:14 GMT)

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