Commercial crude oil reserves rose massively again last week in the United States, according to figures released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Agency(EIA), an increase that surprised the market and is due in particular to a new use of strategic stocks.
In the week ended May 12, U.S. commercial inventories rose by 5 million barrels, while analysts saw them contracting by 2 million barrels, according to a Bloomberg consensus. This increase is explained, in part, by a further drawdown of US strategic reserves, which fell by 2.4 million barrels over the period.
It is also justified by a significant statistical adjustment, which led the EIA to add 1.6 million barrels per day to the quantities arriving on the U.S. market, or more than 11 million barrels over one week. These adjustments are frequent and allow EIA to correct for approximations on earlier data, but tend to confuse the data for the week in question.
The swelling of commercial inventories comes despite the acceleration of U.S. refineries, whose utilization rate rose to 92% from 91% the previous week, the highest since late December. On the other hand, crude oil exports jumped by half (+50%), more than imports (+23%). As for demand, shipments of refined products in the United States fell (-3%) over a week, dragged down by gasoline (-4%) and kerosene (-28%).
This slowdown is likely to further worry the market about U.S. demand as we approach the extended Memorial Day weekend (May 27-29), which traditionally kicks off the U.S. travel season.
Production fell slightly to 12.2 million barrels per day from 12.3 million barrels per day the previous week, levels around which volumes have been moving since the beginning of the year. The publication did not cause much of a reaction in the price of black gold. By 14:55 GMT, the price of a barrel of U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for June delivery was up 0.62% at $71.30.
