A week after reporting a massive crude oil inventory of more than 21 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration had another unpleasant surprise for inventory watchers: the authority reported of an inventory of 13.8 million barrels during the week to March 5th. and another in distillates, however, made up for the negative news.
A day earlier, the American Petroleum Institute reported building a crude oil inventory of up to 12.79 million barrels for the week to March 5, against analysts ’expectations of a modest increase of 816,000 barrels.
Expectations for the EIA estimate were a decrease of 833,000 barrels in crude inventories.
As for gasoline, the EIA reported a drop in inventory of 11.9 million barrels, which was compared to an estimated 13.6 million barrel decline for the previous week. Gasoline production averaged 9 million barrels a day, up from 8.3 million bpd a week earlier.
In distilled fuels, the authority estimated an inventory draw of 5.5 million barrels for the week to March 5, compared to a drop of 9.7 million barrels from the previous week. Average distillate production averaged 3.7 million bpd last week, up from 2.9 million bpd the previous week.
Last week, refineries processed 12.3 million bpd, operating at 69 percent capacity, amid a resumption of normal operation after the Texas freeze that caused shutdowns and shutdowns.
Meanwhile, oil prices stagnated as traders began to make profits, with some bets that the downside potential was beginning to outpace the upward momentum.
At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $ 68.01 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate at $ 64.52 a barrel, both down from the heights affected earlier this week, when Brent went briefly exceed $ 70 a barrel. The demonstration was fueled by OPEC + ‘s decision to stop production cuts as they are for another month and reports that crude oil supply is narrowing globally as demand begins to rise.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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