By Dan Molinski

U.S. inventories of crude-oil and fuels declined across-the-board for a second straight week last week, according to data released Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration.

Benchmark U.S. oil prices that were slightly lower before the mostly-bullish report was released turned higher afterward. The Nymex front-month crude contract for November delivery was recently up 0.5% at $86.94 a barrel.

Commercial crude-oil stockpiles fell by 1.4 million barrels, to 429.2 million barrels, and are now about 3% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted crude stockpiles would rise by 1.3 million barrels from the prior week.

Oil stored at Cushing, Okla., the delivery point for U.S. stocks, increased by 273,000 barrels from the previous week to 26 million barrels, the EIA said in its weekly report.

U.S. crude-oil production was unchanged from the previous week at 12 million barrels a day, according to the EIA.

Gasoline stockpiles fell by 4.7 million barrels, to 207.5 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations for inventories to decrease by just 1 million barrels from the previous week.

Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, dropped by 3.4 million barrels to 110.9 million barrels, and are now about 21% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts had forecast distillates inventories would fall by 1.4 million barrels from the previous week.

The refining capacity utilization rate rose by 0.7 percentage points from the previous week to 91.3%. Analysts were forecasting a 0.4 percentage-point decline from the week prior.

 
U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Sept. 230: 
 
             Crude  Gasoline  Distillates  Refinery Use 
EIA data:     -1.4      -4.7         -3.4          +0.7 
Forecast:     +1.3      -1.0         -1.4          -0.4 
 
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

October 05, 2022 11:03 ET (15:03 GMT)

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