By Dan Molinski
U.S. inventories of crude-oil, gasoline and diesel fuels declined across the board last week, and crude oil production also fell, according to data released Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration.
Benchmark U.S. oil prices that were higher before the bullish report was released extended those gains afterward. The Nymex front-month crude contract for November delivery was recently up 3.3% at $81.06 a barrel.
Commercial crude-oil stockpiles fell by 215,000 barrels, to 430.6 million barrels, and are still about 2% 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, increased by 692,000 barrels from the previous week to 25.7 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 12 million barrels a day, according to the EIA.
Gasoline stockpiles fell by 2.4 million barrels, to 212.2 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations for inventories to increase by 900,000 barrels from the previous week.
Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, dropped by 2.9 million barrels to 114.4 million barrels, and are now about 20% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts had forecast distillates inventories would fall by 100,000 barrels from the previous week.
The refining capacity utilization rate dropped by a hefty 3 percentage points from the previous week to 90.6%. Analysts were forecasting just a 0.7 percentage-point decline from the week prior.
U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Sept. 23:
Crude Gasoline Distillates Refinery Use
EIA data: -0.2 -2.4 -2.9 -3.0
Forecast: -0.3 +0.9 -0.1 -0.7
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
09-28-22 1102ET
