Crude oil inventories in the United States decreased by 3.8 million barrels during the week ending June 26, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The decrease brings commercial stockpiles to 408.4 million barrels, according to government data, which is now 7% 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 reported that crude oil inventories saw a draw of 6.072 million barrels in the period.
Crude futures were down in mid-morning trading. At 10:15 a.m. in New York, Brent futures were trading at $72.06 per barrel—down $0.89 (-1.19%) on the day and down roughly $1.30 per barrel from this same time last week. WTI was also trading down on the day, by $0.53 per barrel (-0.76%) on Wednesday morning at $68.97.
For total motor gasoline, the EIA reported that inventories had increased by 2.3 million barrels, compared to the week prior’s 2.1 million barrel build. The most recent figures showed that average daily gasoline production increased to 10.0 million barrels. For middle distillates, inventories increased by 2.5 million barrels with production decreasing to an average of 5.2 million barrels daily. Distillate inventories are now 8% below the five-year average.
Total products supplied—a proxy for U.S. oil demand—averaged 20.6 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, up 1.7% compared to the same period last year. Gasoline demand averaged 9.0 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, while the distillate four-week average supplied averaged 3.7 million barrels—down 1.9% year over year.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
Source: Original Article
