Crude oil prices rose Wednesday morning after the Energy Information Administration reported that crude inventories had dropped 5.9 million barrels between the week and April 9th.
This compares to an inventory draw of 3.5 million barrels from the previous week.
The EIA inventory estimate comes a day after the American Petroleum Institute reported an inventory of 3.6 million barrels of crude oil in the same period, but an accumulation of 5.565 million barrels in gasoline stocks, which prevented oil prices from fluctuating significantly up or down.
For gasoline, the EIA estimated a modest inventory of 300,000 barrels between the week and April 9, with an average production of 9.6 million barrels per day. This compared to an accumulation of 4 million barrels from the previous week and an average production rate of 9.3 million barrels per day.
In medium distillates, the authority estimated a fall in inventories of 2.1 million barrels between the week and April 9, with an average production of 4.6 million barrels per day, virtually unchanged. over the previous week, and inventories added 1.5 million barrels.
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Brent crude was trading at $ 65.04 a barrel at the time of writing, and West Texas Intermediate at $ 61.55 a barrel. Both rose more than 2 percent from opening, backed by news of a 21 percent increase in oil imports to China last month. However, headwinds remain strong.
“Prices remain closed in a lateral limbo, as the bearish evolution of Covid-19 in some countries competes against bullish economic data and future spending projections in the United States and China,” Rystad Energy analysts said on Tuesday. .
Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley said in a new note that it expected prices to remain set until the end of the summer, between $ 65 and $ 70 per barrel for Brent.
The slow deployment of Covid-19 vaccines in Europe and the news that vaccines with Johnson & Johnson may be temporarily suspended due to rare blood clotting problems in several patients also weigh on the price of oil.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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