Edge oil prices received another lift today, after the Energy Information Administration reported a record crude oil inventory of 4.5 million barrels for the week to 7 August.
At 514.1 million barrels, inventories remain above the five-year average for this time of year, despite several hefty weekly draws, including one of 7.4 million tons for the first week of August. Analysts had expected the authority to report an inventory of 3.2 million barrels.
The EIA report comes on the heels of the US Petroleum Institute’s weekly estimate, which found that inventories had dropped 4.4 million tons in the week to August 7, driving prices higher.
In gasoline, the EIA reported an inventory of 700,000 barrels for last week, compared to a moderate increase of 419,000 barrels for the previous week. Gasoline production rose last week, to 9.6 million barrels per day, from 9.3 million pd a week earlier.
In distillate fuels, the authority estimates an inventory of 2.3 million barrels for the week to August 7, which compared to a construction of 1.6 million barrels for the previous week, Distillate fuel production stood at an average of 4.8 last week million bd per day, compared to 4.9 million bd per week earlier.
Distilled fuel inventories have been slower than gasoline prices to fall and remain high above the five-year season average, Reuters’ John Kemp said last week. At that time, distillate fuel inventories were close to 180 million barrels, the highest since the early 1980s, and 38 million barrels above the five-year average.
Amid this build-up of distillates, caused in no small part by the still persistent depression in air travel, refineries last week processed 14.7 million tons of crude oil. This went up slightly in the previous week, when refineries in the US processed 14.6 million tons of raw material every day.
Brent crude traded at $ 45.22 a barrel at the time of this writing, with West Texas Intermediate at $ 42.40 a barrel, both slightly up close to Tuesday.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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