EIA Confirms Crude Oil Inventory Builds in US
Crude oil inventories in the United States increased by 3.6 million barrels during the week ending January 21, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Thursday. The increase brings commercial stockpiles to 426 million barrels according to government data, which is still 2% below the five-year average for this time of year.
The EIA’s data release follows API’s figures that were released a day earlier, which suggested that crude oil inventories grew by 3.04 million barrels.
Crude prices were trading down on Thursday morning as risk premium in global oil markets made a hasty retreat after US President Donald Trump eased off his threats over Greenland. At 8:23 a.m. in New York, Brent was trading at $65.15 per barrel—down $1.24 (-1.90%) on the day and down roughly $0.60 per barrel week over week. WTI was also trading down, by $1.14 per barrel (-1.88%) in early trade.
For total motor gasoline, the EIA reported that inventories had increased by 6 million barrels after gaining 9 million barrels in the week prior. The most recent figures showed that average daily gasoline production decreased to 8.8 million barrels. For middle distillates, inventories increased by 3.3 million barrels, with production decreasing by 210,000 barrels daily to an average of 5.1 million barrels daily.
Total products supplied—a proxy for U.S. oil demand—slipped to 19.9 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, up 1.5% compared to the same period last year. Gasoline demand averaged 8.2 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, while the distillate four-week average supplied averaged 3.5 million barrels—down 1.1 percent year over year.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com