U.S. Crude-Oil Inventories Rise as Government Sells Reserves

By Dan Molinski

U.S. commercial inventories of crude oil rose sharply last week amid higher production rates and more government sales of oil to the private sector from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, according to data released Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration.

Benchmark U.S. oil prices that were lower before the mostly bearish report was released extended those declines afterward. The Nymex front-month crude contract for December delivery was recently down 2.4% at $86.79 a barrel.

Commercial crude-oil stockpiles jumped by 3.9 million barrels to 440.8 million barrels but remain about 3% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted crude stockpiles would fall by 200,000 barrels from the prior week.

Oil stored at Cushing, Okla., the delivery point for U.S. stocks, decreased by 1 million barrels from the previous week to 27.2 million barrels, the EIA said in its weekly report.

U.S. crude-oil production rose by 200,000 barrels a day last week to 12.1 million barrels a day, according to the EIA.

Gasoline stockpiles fell for a sixth week in a row, hovering around an eight-year low of 205.7 million barrels. The decline of 900,000 barrels was less than analysts' expectations of a 1.1 million-barrel fall.

Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, fell for the first time in four weeks. The stockpiles were down by 500,000 barrels to 106.3 million barrels and are now 17% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts had forecast distillates inventories would decline by 900,000 barrels from the previous week.

The refining capacity utilization rate unexpectedly jumped by 1.5 percentage points from the previous week to 92.1%. Analysts were forecasting a 0.5-percentage-point increase from the week prior.

 
U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Nov. 4: 
 
             Crude  Gasoline  Distillates  Refinery Use 
EIA data:     +3.9      -0.9         -0.5          +1.5 
Forecast:     -0.2      -1.1         -0.9          +0.5 
 
Note: Numbers in millions of barrels, with the exception of refinery use, which is in percentage points. 
 
 

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

11-09-22 1121ET