By Dan Molinski
U.S. inventories of crude oil fell sharply last week while gasoline stockpiles increased, according to weekly data released Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration.
Benchmark U.S. oil prices that were slightly lower before the mostly-bullish report came out turned higher afterward. The Nymex front-month crude contract for March delivery was recently up 0.5%, at $52.85 a barrel.
Crude-oil stockpiles dropped by 9.9 million barrels, to 476.7 million barrels, and are now about 5% above the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted crude stockpiles would rise by 100,000 barrels from the prior week.
Oil stored at Cushing, the delivery point for U.S. stocks, fell by 2.3 million barrels from the previous week, to 50.2 million barrels, the EIA said in its weekly report.
U.S. crude-oil production fell by 100,000 barrels a day on the week to 10.9 million barrels a day, according to the EIA.
Gasoline stockpiles increased by 2.5 million barrels, to 247.7 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations for inventories to rise by 1 million barrels from the previous week.
Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, fell by 815,000 barrels, to 162.8 million barrels and remain about 8% above the five-year average, the EIA said. Earlier in the week, analysts had forecast distillate supplies would fall by 500,000 barrels from the previous week.
The refining capacity utilization rate fell by 0.8 percentage points from the previous week, to 81.7%. This compares with forecasts for a 0.5 percentage-point decline from the previous week.
U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Jan. 22:
Refinery
Crude Gasoline Distillates Use
EIA data: -9.9 +2.5 -0.8 -0.8
Forecast: +0.1 +1.0 -0.5 -0.5
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
01-27-21 1100ET
