By Paulo Trevisani

U.S. crude-oil inventories rose more than expected last week, according to data released Thursday by the Energy Information Administration, as a slowing economy is expected to weaken energy demand.

Benchmark U.S. oil prices that were already rising kept their pace afterward. The Nymex front-month crude contract for August delivery was recently rising 5.7% at $104.14 a barrel.

Crude-oil stockpiles rose by 8.2 million barrels, to 423.8 million barrels, and are now about 10% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted crude stockpiles would decrease by 1.2 million barrels from the prior week.

Oil stored at Cushing, Okla., the delivery point for U.S. stocks, increased by 69,000 barrels from the previous week, to 21.3 million barrels, the EIA said in its weekly report.

U.S. crude-oil production was unchanged at 12.1 million barrels a day, according to the EIA.

Gasoline stocks fell by 2.5 million barrels to 219.1 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, fell by 1.3 million barrels to 111.1 million barrels, and are now about 20% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts were forecasting distillates inventories would rise by 1.1 million barrels from the previous week.

The refining capacity utilization rate slid by 0.5 percentage point from the previous week, to 94.5%, and compares to analysts' forecasts for a 0.2 percentage-point increase.

U.S. oil inventories for the week ended July 1:

 
           Crude Gasoline Distillates Refinery Use 
 
 EIA data: +8.2   -2.5    -1.3        -0.5 
 Forecast: -1.2   -0.5    +1.1        +0.2 
 

Note: Numbers in millions of barrels, with the exception of refinery use, which is in percentage points.

Write to Paulo Trevisani at paulo.trevisani@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 07, 2022 12:22 ET (16:22 GMT)

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