U.S. Oil Inventories Rise as Slow Economy Dents Demand
July 07 2022 - 12:37PM
Dow Jones News
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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