A week after reporting a massive increase in crude oil inventory by more than 21 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration had another unpleasant surprise for inventory watchers: the authority reported an inventory increase of 13.8 million barrels. barrels in the week until March 5. A drop in gasoline inventories and another in distillates, however, made up for the negative news.
A day earlier, the American Petroleum Institute reported an estimated increase in crude oil stocks of up to 12.79 million barrels for the week through March 5, against analysts’ expectations of a modest increase of around 816,000 barrels.
Expectations for the EIA estimate were for a decline of 833,000 barrels in crude oil stocks.
In gasoline, the EIA reported an inventory drop of 11.9 million barrels, which compared to an estimated 13.6 million barrels drop for the previous week. Average gasoline production was 9 million barrels per day, compared with 8.3 million bpd the previous week.
In distillate fuels, the authority estimated a draw of 5.5 million barrels for the week through March 5, compared with a drop of 9.7 million barrels the previous week. Average distillate production averaged 3.7 million bpd last week, against 2.9 million bpd the week before.
Refineries processed 12.3 million bpd last week, operating at 69 percent capacity, amid resumption of normal operation after the Texas freeze that led to disruptions and shutdowns.
Oil prices, however, have stagnated in their rise as traders have started to make profits, with some betting that the downside potential was starting to exceed the upward momentum.
At the time of writing, Brent oil was trading at $ 68.01 a barrel, with West Texas Intermediate at $ 64.52 a barrel, both below the heights reached earlier this week when Brent hit briefly $ 70 a barrel. The recovery was spurred by the OPEC + decision to leave production cuts as they are for another month and reports that the oil supply was contracting globally, as demand began to increase.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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