Oil reserves fell 4.4 million barrels: Investing.com EIA

Investing.com – US oil stocks declined last week, confusing expectations, according to the Energy Information Administration.

It fell 4.4 million barrels last week after a 2 million barrel rise the previous week. Analysts tracked by Investing.com expected a build of 1.27 million barrels for the week.

Hurricane Sally hit the US Gulf Coast on Wednesday but was not expected to cause major damage to drilling and refining operations, although a quarter of production in the region is closed.

Oil stored in Oklahoma fell 74,000 barrels after accumulating 1.8 million barrels the previous week.

Oil prices rose Wednesday morning after an industry estimate on Tuesday showed a surprising 9.5 million barrels of inventory removal. West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark index, was up 4% to $ 39.83 and the international standard was up 3.5% to $ 41.98.

“While the oil extraction itself is positive, given that it is four times more than the construction estimate, the ‘hidden’ number for me is last week’s production, which increased almost a million barrels compared to the production that returned after Hurricane Laura, “Investing said. Barani Krishnan, an analyst at .com, referring to last month’s storm: “We are now at almost 11 million bpd, almost 2 million below the March record.”

Krishnan added that the current storm could cause additional outages and the numbers could be distorted for a week or two. “I would warn the oil bulls to take any of these numbers and run with them. Of course, with the end of the peak driving season in the US and with commuting to work and flights still a fraction from pre-pandemic levels, there is no Big Story for fuel demand. The IEA has accordingly cut its forecasts; OPEC + has said it will not make unilateral cuts to support prices, and Libya could bring in up to a million barrels more. to the market if the peace process continues. “