By Dan Molinski
U.S. commercial inventories of crude oil fell sharply last week as refinery activity picked up speed, according to data released Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration.
Benchmark U.S. oil prices that were lower before the moderately bullish report was released reduced those declines slightly afterward. The Nymex front-month crude contract for December delivery was recently down 1.9%, at $85.30 a barrel.
Commercial crude-oil stockpiles dropped by 5.4 million barrels, to 435.4 million barrels, and are now about 4% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted crude stockpiles would fall by just 500,000 barrels from the prior week.
Oil stored at Cushing, Okla., the delivery point for U.S. stocks, decreased by 1.6 million barrels from the previous week, to 25.6 million barrels, the EIA said in its weekly report.
U.S. crude-oil production was unchanged from last week at 12.1 million barrels a day, according to the EIA.
Gasoline stockpiles jumped by 2.2 million barrels, to 207.9 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations of just a 200,000 barrel increase.
Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, unexpectedly rose by 1.1 million barrels, and are now 15% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts had forecast distillates inventories would decline by 800,000 barrels from the previous week.
The refining capacity utilization rate unexpectedly jumped by 0.8 percentage points from the previous week, to 92.9%. Analysts were forecasting a 0.4-percentage-point increase from the week prior.
U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Nov. 11:
Crude Gasoline Distillates Refinery Use
EIA data: -5.4 +2.2 +1.1 +0.8
Forecast: -0.5 +0.2 -0.8 +0.4
Note: Numbers in millions of barrels, with the exception of refinery use, which is in percentage points.
Write to Dan Molinski at dan.molinski@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
11-16-22 1103ET
