Crude oil and refined product futures were modestly higher at midday Wednesday after retreating on bearish U.S. inventory data.
The Nymex May West Texas Intermediate crude contract was up by about 27cts to $85.50 a barrel as of 11:40 a.m. ET, about $1 above its earlier low. The June WTI contract was 31cts higher at $84.77/bbl.
Brent crude was seeing similar gains, with the June contract up 30cts at $89.72/bbl and the July contract 29cts higher at $88.82/bbl.
Gasoline contracts were leading refined products higher, with the Nymex May RBOB contract up 1.64cts at $2.772/gal and the June contract 1.67cts higher at $1.7469/gal. The front-month contract was nearly 8cts above morning lows.
Distillate futures were barely positive, with the Nymex May ULSD contract up by 0.35ct to $2.6805 a gallon and the June contract 0.26ct higher at $2.6805/gal. The May ULSD contract was down by about 2.5cts/gal earlier Wednesday.
EIA at midmorning reported U.S. crude oil, gasoline and distillate inventories rose in the week ended Friday.
The agency estimated domestic crude holdings rose by 5.8 million bbl, leaving them about 2% below the five-year average. It reported gasoline inventories increased by 700,000 bbl, putting them 3% under the five-year average.
Distillate stocks jumped by 1.7 million bbl and remained about 5% below the five-year average.
The gains for gasoline and distillate stocks came even as U.S. refinery utilization fell to 88.3%, a full percentage point below where it was a year ago.
The stock builds also came as EIA reported a sharp drop in U.S. gasoline demand. The agency said consumption last week fell by about 600,000 b/d to 8.6 million b/d. The agency also had U.S. distillate demand falling last week by 500,000 b/d to 2.98 million b/d.
Spot gasoline prices in most U.S. markets were rising in the wake of the EIA data release. The notable exception was in San Francisco, where CARBOB prices were off by nearly 6cts/gal.
EIA data showed refinery utilization on the West Coast (PADD 5) rose last week by 2.6 percentage points to 86.4%, while gasoline stocks increased by 100,000 bbl to 29.1 million bbl.
Renewable Identification Number credit prices were modestly higher near midday, with ethanol-based D6 RINs up by 0.12ct and biodiesel-based D4 credits 0.13ct higher.
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 Jeff Barber, jbarber@opisnet.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-10-24 1305ET
