Crude oil prices rose further after the Energy Information Administration reported an oil inventory draw of 6.1 million barrels for the week to December 25th.
A day earlier, the American Petroleum Institute also helped raise prices by estimating a decline in crude inventory of 4.785 billion barrels for the same week.
Last week, the EIA had estimated a modest drop in inventory, amounting to 600,000 barrels, which, in spite of everything, helped keep prices higher, as it coincided with positive vaccine updates that traders related to an expected demand improvement next year.
Even the news that vaccination in the United States is going much slower than expected, with just over a million people vaccinated on December 23, compared to the 20 million scheduled for December, no affected oil concentration. This was probably because last week’s Congress finally agreed to a pandemic stimulus bill that many hope will boost both consumer spending and oil demand.
The EIA report is now likely to intensify this concentration. The authority also reported a 1.2 million barrel gasoline inventory draw during the last full week of December, which was compared to a 1.1 million barrel drop a week earlier. Gasoline production averaged 9.2 million bpd last week, compared to 8.8 million bpd the previous week.
In terms of distilled fuels, the EIA reported an increase in inventory of 3.1 million barrels during the week to December 25, with an average production of 4.6 million barrels per day. This compares to a drop in inventory of 2.3 million barrels the previous week and an average production of 4.6 million barrels per day.
Refineries processed 14.3 million bpd of crude last week, compared to 14 million bpd a week earlier, operating at 79.4% of their capacity, compared to 78% last week. previous.
The report suggests that, despite recent major inventories, there is still a long way to go before oil and fuel demand improves more strongly. This week there was also worrying news from the OPEC + camp: Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Russia will advocate a further increase in production at the January enlarged cartel meeting, as prices were within the optimal range at this time.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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