By Dan Molinski

U.S. inventories of crude oil and gasoline declined sharply last week and oil production retreated from two-year-highs, according to data released Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration.

Benchmark U.S. oil prices that were higher before the bullish report extended those gains afterward. The Nymex front-month crude contract for September delivery was recently up 2.3% at $88.55 a barrel.

Crude-oil stockpiles surprisingly fell by 7.1 million barrels, to 425 million barrels, and are now about 6% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted crude stockpiles would rise by 100,000 barrels from the prior week.

Oil stored at Cushing, Okla., the delivery point for U.S. stocks, increased by 192,000 barrels from the previous week, to 25.4 million barrels, the EIA said in its weekly report.

U.S. crude-oil production fell by 100,000 barrels a day, to 12.1 million barrels a day, according to the EIA.

Gasoline stockpiles dropped by 4.6 million barrels, to 215.7 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations for inventories to decrease by just 900,000 barrels from the previous week.

Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, rose by 766,000 barrels, to 112.3 million barrels, and are now about 23% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts were forecasting distillates inventories would rise by 1.3 million barrels from the previous week.

The refining capacity utilization rate fell by 0.8 percentage points from the previous week, to 93.5%, which compares with analysts' forecasts for a 0.1 percentage-point decrease.

 
U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Aug. 12: 
 
             Crude  Gasoline  Distillates  Refinery Use 
EIA data:     -7.1      -4.6       +0.8         -0.8 
Forecast:     +0.1      -0.9       +1.3         -0.1

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

August 17, 2022 11:02 ET (15:02 GMT)

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