Oil reserves fell 6.065 million barrels last week: EIA By Investing.com

Noreen Burke

Investing.com – Inventories fell in the past week, the Energy Information Administration said Wednesday.

US commercial crude inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) fell in barrels last week to 493.5 million barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations for a reduction of 2.583 million barrels.

Distillate reserves, which include diesel and, rose in barrels for the week versus expectations of a 0.529 million barrel drop, EIA data showed.

The refinery’s crude executions increased by the day over the past week, the EIA said. The refinery’s weekly utilization rate increased, according to the report.

US gasoline inventories fell last week, the EIA said, compared with expectations for a build of 1.662 million barrels.

Energy analysts warn against over-reading the latest weekly data for the year, which tends to be skewed by accounting and tax issues.

“Once again, the EIA has surprised with a lower crude stock reading than the market anticipated,” said Investing.com oil expert Barani Krishnan. “But based on year-end fluctuations, it’s not really surprising to see variations in market expectations and what the companies holding the barrels are doing in accordance with their fiscal commitments. Also, the almost 240,000 barrel-a-day drop in imports. and the increase of more than 500,000 bpd in exports explains well the fall in crude stocks.

“For me, what is really interesting in this data set, in addition to the reduction in gasoline for the second week in a row, is the accumulation of distillates. The 3.1 million bpd increase in diesel-based distillates is a bit of a surprise, given that this should be an exciting time for Christmas season deliveries, when trucks would be on the roads from coast to coast. “