Petroleum traders received a surprise this morning in the form of a 6.9-million-bbl draw in crude oil inventories. The decline came thanks to a massive plunge of 11 million bbl in Gulf Coast stocks, with some of the drop credited to tax avoidance.

Gasoline stocks fell by 600,000 bbl, as U.S. refiners pushed total input above 17-million b/d. The increase of 168,000 b/d on the week pushed more than 10-million b/d of gasoline to market as well as over 5.1-million b/d of distillate.

Distillate stocks rose by 800,000 bbl and that included a 1.9-million bbl build in the Northeast.

Demand was surprisingly brisk with gasoline consumption estimated at 9.168 million b/d. Companies exported about 600,000 b/d more gasoline than they imported.

Ahead of the report, crude oil prices were down by 60-80cts/bbl with RBOB off by 2.5-3cts/gal. ULSD values were flat thanks to the prospects of some seasonable weather. After five minutes of quick digestion, crude oil futures were softer by 40cts/bbl with RBOB off 1.5cts/gal in quiet trading. Diesel futures were nearly unchanged.

This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

-- Reporting by Tom Kloza, tkloza@opisnet.com; Editing by Steve Cronin, scronin@opisnet.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 28, 2023 11:41 ET (16:41 GMT)