Commercial crude oil reserves unexpectedly rose slightly last week in the United States, according to figures released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA). In the week ended April 7, U.S. commercial inventories rose by 0.6 million barrels, while analysts were betting on a median reduction of 1.05 million barrels, according to a Bloomberg consensus.
This moderate increase follows two weeks of massive reductions in U.S. crude inventories. Strategic reserves declined by 1.6 million barrels to 369.6 million. This drawdown partly explains the stabilization of ordinary crude stocks. In other factors, crude oil imports fell by 951,000 barrels per day (bpd), while exports fell by more than 2 million bpd.
In addition, demand for petroleum products eased slightly to 19.05 million b/d from 20.6 million b/d the week before. U.S. crude oil production remained virtually unchanged at 12.3 million b/d, up from 12.2 million. Gasoline reserves decreased by 0.3 million barrels, while analysts were expecting a larger reduction of 1.9 million. Those of distilled products (fuel oil, diesel) decreased by 0.6 million, against an expected 0.2 million.
By 15:00 GMT, oil prices were gaining momentum, more because of slowing U.S. inflation, which was pushing down the dollar. A barrel of North Sea Brent crude for June delivery was up 1.75% at $87.08. Its U.S. equivalent, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), for delivery in May, gained 1.58% to 82.82 dollars. The U.S. CPI consumer price index slowed to 5% in March from 6% in February year-over-year. This easing in inflation is mainly due to a drop in energy costs, measured before the impact of the announcement of an Opec+ production cut, which gave a boost to prices.
