By Dan Molinski
U.S. crude-oil inventories unexpectedly increased by a large margin last week even as refinery activity accelerated, according to data released Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration.
Benchmark U.S. oil prices that were sharply higher before the mixed-to-bearish report was released added to those gains afterward. The Nymex front-month crude contract for June delivery was recently up 5.7% at $105.42 a barrel.
Crude-oil stockpiles jumped by 8.5 million barrels to 424.2 million barrels, and are now about 13% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted crude stockpiles would fall by 300,000 barrels from the prior week.
Oil stored at Cushing, Okla., the delivery point for U.S. stocks, decreased by 587,000 barrels from the previous week to 28.2 million barrels, the EIA said in its weekly report.
U.S. crude-oil production fell by 100,000 barrels a day from the previous week to 11.8 million barrels a day, according to the EIA.
Gasoline stockpiles declined by 3.6 million barrels to 225 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations for inventories to decrease by 1.7 million barrels from the previous week.
Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, dropped by 913,000 barrels to a 17-year-low of 104 million barrels, and are now about 23% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts were forecasting distillates inventories would fall by 1 million barrels from the previous week.
The refining capacity utilization rate rose by 1.6 percentage points from the previous week to 90%, compared with analysts' forecasts for a 0.5 percentage-point increase.
U.S. oil inventories for the week ended May 6:
Crude Gasoline Distillates Refinery Use
EIA data: +8.5 -3.6 -0.9 +1.6
Forecast: -0.3 -1.7 -1.0 +0.5
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
05-11-22 1104ET
