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USA: smaller than expected drop in crude oil inventories

U.S. crude oil inventories down. Rebound in demand for distillates, despite a slight fall in diesel compared with last year.

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Commercial crude oil reserves fell last week in the United States, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). However, this reduction was well below market expectations.

Crude oil inventories down 700,000 barrels, market disappointment

In the week ending July 14, these inventories contracted by 700,000 barrels, less than a third of the 2.5 million barrels projected by analysts. This figure was based on a consensus drawn up by the Bloomberg agency. This disappointment for the market cut into price momentum. At around 15:00 GMT, a barrel of US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for August delivery was up by just 0.76% at $76.33, compared with double that figure shortly before publication. The discrepancy between the published figure and forecasts is explained in part by a statistical adjustment, which added 5.7 million barrels to the volumes arriving on the US market during the week under review.

Rebound in demand for petroleum products: EIA corrects past approximations

These adjustments enable EIA to correct approximations observed for previous weeks, and do not reflect market movements during the previous week. Strategic reserves remained unchanged. The period was marked by a rebound in demand, with a marked increase (+11% over one week) in deliveries of petroleum products.

Significant rebound in distillates, diesel demand up despite slight comparative decline

Demand for gasoline remained buoyant, but it was above all the surge in demand for distillates (+23%), including diesel fuel, that drove the rebound. Demand for diesel fuel, often considered a leading indicator of economic activity since most American trucks run on diesel, nevertheless remains 8% below its level at the same time last year, taking the four-week average, the indicator favored by analysts. Another indicator of demand was the refinery utilization rate, which rose to 94.3% from 93.7% the previous week, the highest since early June. On the supply side, production remained unchanged at 12.3 million barrels per day.

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