Crude and gasoline futures contracts were all showing slight gains late Wednesday morning, with diesel futures falling even as federal data show another decline in U.S. inventories.
The gains come amid a day that has seen good-sized swings in futures prices as equity markets are also moving lower and there is no market-moving developments in the war between Israel and Hamas.
Inventory data released by the Energy Information Administration Wednesday morning showed builds in U.S. crude and gasoline stockpiles, while ULSD supplies fell.
That has put pressure on crude prices, with contracts for U.S. benchmark West
Texas Intermediate crude giving up earlier gains to drift in and out of positive territory. At 11:50 a.m. ET, the December WTI contract was 18cts higher to $83.92/bbl while January prices were moving up by 24cts to $83.21/bbl. European benchmark Brent crude was seeing increases about twice those of WTI, with the December contract rising 51cts to $88.58/bbl and January prices moving 42cts higher to $87.58/bbl.
Gasoline contracts were hovering just inside of positive territory, with the November RBOB contract ahead 0.10ct to $2.2686/gal while December gains were 0.21ct to $2.2548/gal.
The small movements in RBOB futures come as retailers around the nation see gross rack-to-retail margins averaging more than 57cts/gal. The national average diesel margin topped 64cts on Wednesday, OPIS MarginPro data show.
ULSD contracts were on track for a fourth day of losses, with the November contract moving 3.82cts lower to $3.0067/gal while December prices shed 3.16cts to $2.9309/gal.
EIA on Wednesday reported U.S. distillate inventories fell by 1.7 million bbl in the week ended Friday, placing them 12% below the seasonal five-year average. Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 200,000 bbl and are 1% over seasonal averages while crude inventories climbed by 1.4 million bbl but remain 5% below where they normally are at this time of year.
Refineries in the U.S. operated at 85.6% of capacity, a small decrease from the week before as seasonal turnaround work continues. Implied gasoline demand for the week was 8.86 million b/d, more than 200,000 b/d above the recent four-week average.
Gasoline prices were rising Wednesday in most spot markets OPIS follows around the country, with markets west of the Rockies seeing gains of 3-6cts/gal.
Prices, however, were falling in both Group 3 and Chicago, with declines of nearly 5cts/gal and over 2cts/gal, respectively.
Diesel prices were falling around the country, with Chicago diesel falling more than 11cts/gal.
Renewable Identification Number prices, which have dropped below 90cts recently, were seeing large gains, with D6 ethanol RINs rising 2.75cts while D4 biodiesel RINs increased by 3cts.
This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
--Reporting by Steve Cronin, scronin@opisnet.com; Editing by Michael Kelly, mkelly@opisnet.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-25-23 1350ET
