A $ 1.6 million barrel crude oil inventory sent oil prices higher today, with the Energy Information Administration also reporting a drop in gasoline inventories and a modest build in distillate fuel inventories.
This compares with a draw of 4.5 million tonnes for the previous week, the third weekly haul – and half a dozen – in a row.
A day earlier, the U.S. Petroleum Institute had cooled the optimism of oil spheres by building an estimate of a gasoline inventory of close to 5 million tons for the week to August 14th.
The EIA, for its part, rumored gasoline supplies had hit 3.3 million barrels last week, against a modest drop of 700,000 barrels. Gasoline production fell last week, to 9.4 million bpd from 9.6 million bpd a week earlier.
Inventories of distilled fuel increased by 200,000 barrels in the week to August 14, following a pull of 2.3 million barrels for the previous week. Distilled fuel production averaged 4.7 million bpd, up from 4.8 million bpd for the previous week.
Refinery runes fell last week to 14.5 million bpd from 14.7 million bpd the week before.
Brent-Raw traded at the time of writing at $ 44.89 a barrel, with West Texas Intermediate at $ 42.44 a barrel in what was adjusted to a week of mixed results. Oil began the week with a rise on the back of reports that China was planning to increase oil imports from the United States, but the emerging rally ended shortly amid doubts that the U.S. economy was so rapid and consistent was as it should be.
In addition, OPEC + is meeting today to discuss the progress of its deal with production control and future plans, adding a new angle of uncertainty. Even though no surprising news is expected to come out of this meeting, it could tell traders how the deal is going and whether internal agreement remains robust.
OPEC + married record highs in July, at a combined 94-97 percent, according to various studies.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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