By Anthony Harrup

U.S. crude oil and gasoline inventories rose last week as refineries increased their capacity use and U.S. crude output reached a record level, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Commercial crude-oil stockpiles excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve rose by 2.9 million barrels, to 443.7 million barrels, in the week ended Dec. 15, and were about 1% below the five-year average for the time of year, the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted crude stockpiles would decrease by 2.5 million barrels.

Storage in the SPR rose by 629,000 barrels, to 352.5 million barrels.

Oil stored at Cushing, Okla., the Nymex delivery hub, rose by 1.7 million barrels, to 32.5 million barrels. U.S. crude oil production was a record 13.3 million barrels a day, 200,000 barrels-a-day higher than the previous week and 1.2 million barrels a day more than a year earlier, the EIA said.

Crude futures were gaining Wednesday, reaching their highest level since the beginning of December as concerns about Houthi rebel attacks on shipping in the Red Sea raises concerns about transport delays and higher costs.

The Nymex crude contract for February was up 1.6%, at $75.10 a barrel, and February Brent was 1.5% higher, at $80.43.

Gasoline stockpiles rose by 2.7 million barrels, to 226.7 million barrels, against expectations of a 700,000-barrel rise in the Journal survey. Gasoline inventories are about 2% below their five-year average, the EIA said.

While gasoline production rose to 10 million barrels a day from 9.5 million the week before, demand measured by product supplied fell by 105,000 barrels a day, to 8.8 million barrels a day, according to the EIA.

Distillate stocks, mostly diesel fuel, increased by 1.5 million barrels, to 115 million barrels, and were 10% below the five-year average. Expectations were for a 700,000-barrel build.

The refining capacity utilization rate rose by 2.2 percentage points, to 92.4%, above the 90.9% rate a year earlier. Expectations were for refinery runs to increase by 0.2 percentage point, to 90.4%.

 
Change in U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Dec. 15: 
 
                   Crude       Gasoline      Distillates         Refinery Use 
EIA data:           2.9           2.7            1.5                  2.2 
Forecast:          -2.5           0.7            0.7                  0.2 
 

Note: Numbers in millions of barrels, with the exception of refinery use, which is in percentage points.

Write to Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 20, 2023 11:48 ET (16:48 GMT)