Crude oil prices have risen even more today, after the Energy Information Administration reported a 6.1 million barrel draw in oil stocks in the week through December 25.
A day earlier, the American Petroleum Institute also helped boost prices, estimating a drop in the crude oil stock of 4.785 million barrels for the same week.
Last week, the EIA estimated a modest decline in inventories of around 600,000 barrels, which, however, helped prices to remain higher as it coincided with positive vaccine updates that traders linked to an improvement in demand expected next year.
Even news that vaccination in the United States is going much slower than expected, with just over one million people vaccinated on December 23, compared with the 20 million planned for December, has not affected the high oil. This probably happened because Congress finally agreed last week to a pandemic stimulus project that many hope will increase consumer spending and demand for oil.
The EIA report is now likely to intensify this recovery. The authority also reported a 1.2 million barrel reduction in gasoline stocks in the last full week of December, compared with a 1.1 million barrel drop the previous week. Average gasoline production was 9.2 million bpd last week, compared to 8.8 million bpd the week before.
In distilled fuels, the EIA reported an inventory increase of 3.1 million barrels for the week through December 25, with an average production of 4.6 million bpd. This compares to an inventory drop of 2.3 million barrels in the previous week and an average production of 4.6 million barrels per day.
Refineries processed 14.3 million bpd of oil last week, compared with 14 million bpd the week before, operating at 79.4 percent of capacity, compared with 78 percent the previous week.
The report suggests that, despite the recent withdrawal of considerable inventories, there is still a way to go before demand for oil and fuels improves more strongly. There was also worrying news from the OPEC + field this week: Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Russia will argue for a further increase in production at the expanded cartel’s January meeting, as prices were within the ideal range at the time .
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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