A bullish federal inventory and demand report has done little to prop up energy prices by midday Wednesday, with gasoline and diesel futures seeing losses accelerate following the release of the data.

RBOB futures were off by more than 1ct/gal at 11:45 a.m. ET, with the August NYMEX contract sliding 1.64cts to $2.557/gal while September prices fell 1.42cts to $2.5212/gal.

ULSD futures were seeing losses approaching 3cts/gal, with the front-month contract 2.9cts in the red to $2.6007/gal while September prices moved 2.57cts lower to $2.6158/gal.

Crude contracts were clinging to positive territory, with the August contract for U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude ahead 16cts to $82.97/bbl while September prices were 24cts higher to $82.15/bbl.

The September and October contracts for European benchmark Brent crude were both ahead by 21cts to $86.45/bbl and $85.65/bbl, respectively.

The declines come despite the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reporting across-the-board draws in crude and refined product inventories in its weekly report issued Wednesday morning.

EIA reported U.S. crude inventories fell by an unexpectedly large 12.2 million bbl in the week ending Friday, placing supplies 4% below seasonal averages.

Gasoline inventories fell by 2.2 million bbl and are 1% behind where they normally are at this time of year. Distillate supplies saw a 1.5 million bbl decrease and are 10% below average levels.

The declines in crude stockpiles came as U.S. refinery utilization inched up a bit to 93.5%. EIA also reported increases in implied gasoline and distillate demand during the week, with gasoline products supplied rising nearly 500,000 bbl to 9.424 million b/d while distillate rose nearly 200,000 bbl to 3.715 million b/d. Implied demand for both fuels, however, lagged about 100,000 b/d behind the same time last year.

It's expected next week will also see strong demand numbers, as today marks the beginning of an extended holiday weekend, with AAA forecasting a record 60.6 million people will travel by car in the coming days.

Heading into the holiday, retailers are seeing gross rack-to-retail margins for gasoline around the U.S. averaging 35cts/gal. That's nearly 1ct lower than Tuesday and an increase of 0.4cts/gal from last year.


This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.


--Reporting by Steve Cronin, scronin@opisnet.com; Editing by Andrew Atwal, aatwal@opisnet.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

07-03-24 1241ET