U.S. commercial crude oil reserves fell less last week than the market expected, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Demand up, but US oil inventories down less significantly
In the week ended July 21, these inventories contracted by 600,000 barrels, whereas analysts were forecasting a reduction of 2.2 million barrels, according to a consensus drawn up by the Bloomberg agency. These commercial reserves amount to 456.8 million barrels. Strategic reserves (SPR) were unchanged at 346.8 million barrels. Gasoline inventories fell, but less than expected. They were down 800,000 barrels on the previous week.
Analysts were expecting a larger decline of 1.37 million barrels. Distillate inventories fell by 200,000 barrels when the market was expecting a 415,000-barrel drawdown. Crude oil production was slightly lower at 12.2 million barrels per day, compared with 12.3 million the week before. The refinery activity rate fell slightly to 93.4%. Crude imports fell (-807,000 barrels per day), while exports rose by almost the same amount.
Demand rose to 21.2 million barrels per day from 20.7 million the week before. On average over four weeks, an indicator closely followed by operators, deliveries of gasoline, kerosene and distillates were slightly up by 2.2% on the same period last year, at 20.495 million barrels per day. For the time being, these figures have had little impact on prices, which remain slightly down, as they were before the stocks were released. At around 15:00 GMT, Brent North Sea crude oil for September delivery was down 0.41% at 83.30 dollars. Its American equivalent, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), for delivery in the same month, lost 0.49% to $79.25.
