By Dan Molinski
U.S. inventories of crude oil increased slightly but total stockpiles of refined fuels declined, according to weekly data released Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration.
Benchmark U.S. oil prices that were higher before the mixed-to-bullish report came out extended those gains afterward. The Nymex front-month crude contract for June delivery was recently up 1.7% at $64.01 a barrel.
Crude-oil stockpiles rose by a tiny 90,000 barrels, to 493.1 million barrels, and are now right at the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted crude stockpiles would fall by a marginal 100,000 barrels from the prior week.
Oil stored at Cushing, the delivery point for U.S. stocks, rose by 722,000 barrels from the previous week, to 46.1 million barrels, the EIA said in its weekly report.
U.S. crude-oil production slipped by 100,000 barrels a day from the previous week to 10.9 million barrels a day, according to the EIA.
Gasoline stockpiles increased by 92,000 barrels to 235.1 millions barrels, compared with analysts expectations for inventories to rise by 200,000 barrels from the previous week.
Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, fell by a hefty 3.3 million barrels, to 139 million barrels and are also now just about at the five-year average, the EIA said. Earlier in the week, analysts had forecast distillate supplies would fall by just 100,000 barrels from the previous week.
The refining capacity utilization rate rose by 0.4 percentage point from the previous week, to 85.4%, roughly in line with analysts forecasts for a 0.5 percentage-point increase from the previous week.
U.S. oil inventories for the week ended April 23:
Refinery
Crude Gasoline Distillates Use
EIA data: +0.1 +0.1 -3.3 +0.4
Forecast: -0.1 +0.2 -0.1 +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
04-28-21 1106ET
