By Dan Molinski
U.S. commercial inventories of crude oil rose sharply last week as refinery activity remained subdued after cold-weather-related shutdowns last month, according to data released Thursday by the Energy Information Administration.
Benchmark U.S. oil prices that were higher before the report was released held onto those gains afterward. The Nymex front-month crude contract for February delivery was recently up 1.1% at $80.38 a barrel.
Commercial crude-oil stockpiles increased by 8.4 million barrels to 448 million barrels, and are now about 3% above the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted crude stockpiles would fall by 1.1 million barrels from the prior week.
Oil stored at Cushing, Okla., the delivery point for U.S. stocks, increased by 3.6 million barrels from the previous week, to 31.4 million barrels, the EIA said in its weekly report.
U.S. crude-oil production was unchanged from the previous week at 12.2 million barrels a day, according to the EIA.
Gasoline stockpiles jumped by 3.5 million barrels to 230.3 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations of a 1.7 million-barrel increase.
Distillate stocks, which are mostly diesel fuel, fell by 1.9 million barrels to 115.8 million barrels, and are now about 20% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts had forecast distillates inventories would fall by 400,000 barrels from the previous week.
The refining capacity utilization rate rose by 1.2 percentage points from the previous week, to 85.3%. Analysts were forecasting a larger, 3-percentage-point increase from the week prior.
U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Jan. 13:
Crude Gasoline Distillates Refinery Use
EIA data: +8.4 +3.5 -1.9 +1.2
Forecast: -1.1 +1.7 -0.4 +3.0
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
01-19-23 1132ET
