U.S. Inventories of Crude Oil Decline Sharply
28 January 2021 - 3:15AM
Dow Jones News
By Dan Molinski
U.S. inventories of crude oil fell sharply last week while
gasoline stockpiles increased, according to weekly data released
Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration.
Benchmark U.S. oil prices that were slightly lower before the
mostly-bullish report came out turned higher afterward. The Nymex
front-month crude contract for March delivery was recently up 0.5%,
at $52.85 a barrel.
Crude-oil stockpiles dropped by 9.9 million barrels, to 476.7
million barrels, and are now about 5% above the five-year average,
the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had
predicted crude stockpiles would rise by 100,000 barrels from the
prior week.
Oil stored at Cushing, the delivery point for U.S. stocks, fell
by 2.3 million barrels from the previous week, to 50.2 million
barrels, the EIA said in its weekly report.
U.S. crude-oil production fell by 100,000 barrels a day on the
week to 10.9 million barrels a day, according to the EIA.
Gasoline stockpiles increased by 2.5 million barrels, to 247.7
million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations for
inventories to rise by 1 million barrels from the previous
week.
Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel,
fell by 815,000 barrels, to 162.8 million barrels and remain about
8% above the five-year average, the EIA said. Earlier in the week,
analysts had forecast distillate supplies would fall by 500,000
barrels from the previous week.
The refining capacity utilization rate fell by 0.8 percentage
points from the previous week, to 81.7%. This compares with
forecasts for a 0.5 percentage-point decline from the previous
week.
U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Jan. 22:
Refinery
Crude Gasoline Distillates Use
EIA data: -9.9 +2.5 -0.8 -0.8
Forecast: +0.1 +1.0 -0.5 -0.5
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
January 27, 2021 11:00 ET (16:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.