U.S. Oil Inventories Surge on Sales of Strategic Reserves

By Dan Molinski

U.S. commercial inventories of crude-oil rose much more than expected last week due mostly to another large transfer of crude oil from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve to the commercial side, according to data released Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration.

Benchmark U.S. oil prices that were slightly higher before the mixed-to-bullish report was released extended those gains afterward. The Nymex front-month crude contract for November delivery was recently up 1.2% at $88.28 a barrel.

Commercial crude-oil stockpiles jumped by 9.9 million barrels, to 439.1 million barrels, and are now just 1% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted crude stockpiles would rise by only 1 million barrels from the prior week.

Oil stored at Cushing, Okla., the delivery point for U.S. stocks, decreased by 309,000 barrels from the previous week to 25.6 million barrels, the EIA said in its weekly report.

U.S. crude-oil production fell by 100,000 barrels a day last week to 11.9 million barrels a day, according to the EIA.

Gasoline stockpiles rose by 2 million barrels to 209.5 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations for inventories to decrease by 1.2 million barrels from the previous week.

Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, dropped by 4.9 million barrels to 106.1 million barrels, and are now about 23% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts had forecast distillates inventories would fall by 1.7 million barrels from the previous week.

The refining capacity utilization rate fell by 1.4 percentage points from the previous week to 89.9%. Analysts were forecasting just a 0.3 percentage-point decline from the week prior.

U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Oct. 7: 
 
             Crude  Gasoline  Distillates  Refinery Use 
EIA data:     +9.9      +2.0         -4.9          -1.4 
Forecast:     +1.0      -1.2         -1.7          -0.3 
 
Note: Numbers in millions of barrels, with the exception of refinery use, which is in percentage points. 
 

Write to Dan Molinski at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

10-13-22 1135ET