Commercial crude oil inventories fell massively last week in the U.S., according to figures released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Agency(EIA), and the unexpected drop came in part from a surge in refinery production.
In the week ended April 14, commercial reserves fell by 4.6 million barrels, while analysts expected only a small decline of 250,000 barrels, according to a Bloomberg consensus. The magnitude of this contraction is all the more remarkable given that, at the same time, the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve(SPR) also decreased, by 1.6 million barrels. They are now at their lowest level in nearly 40 years (November 1983).
This surprise move came, in part, from US refineries, whose utilization rate climbed last week to 91.0% from 89.3% in the previous period, the highest since the beginning of the year. The other factor explaining the plunge in commercial inventories is the rebound in crude oil exports, up two-thirds (+67%) over a week, while imports were little changed (+1.6%).
In terms of petroleum products, U.S. exports remain close to their all-time high, recorded last October. U.S. oil production remained stable at 12.3 million barrels per day. As for demand, it accelerated slightly (+1.3% on a week), but gasoline deliveries were down (-4.6%), which led to an increase of 1.3 million barrels in inventories, while analysts saw them losing 1.25 million barrels.
A signal likely to worry operators, who have been waiting for several weeks for a strengthening of the demand for gasoline. Prices reacted relatively little to this publication. Already trending lower, the barrel of U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in May dropped 1.34% to 79.77 dollars around 15:05 GMT.
