By Dan Molinski
U.S. oil inventories rose much more than expected last week as domestic crude production jumped to an all-time high of more than 13 million barrels a day, according to data released Thursday by the Energy Information Administration.
Benchmark U.S. oil prices that were higher before the report remained so afterward. The Nymex front-month crude contract for November delivery was recently up 0.9% at $84.22 a barrel.
Commercial crude-oil stockpiles jumped by 10.2 million barrels last week to 424.2 million barrels, and are now 3% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted crude stockpiles would rise by just 900,000 barrels from the prior week.
Oil stored at Cushing, Okla., the delivery point for U.S. stocks, fell by 319,000 barrels from the previous week to 21.8 million barrels.
U.S. crude-oil production climbed by 300,000 barrels a day from the previous week to a record-high for weekly data of 13.2 million barrels a day, according to the EIA. That tops a previous peak of 13.1 million barrels a day set during the week ended March 13, 2020.
Gasoline stockpiles fell by 1.3 million barrels to 225.7 million barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations of a 400,000-barrel increase.
Distillate stocks, which are mostly diesel fuel, declined by 1.8 million barrels to 117 million barrels, and are now about 11% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts had forecast distillates inventories would fall by 300,000 barrels last week.
The refining capacity utilization rate slid by 1.6 percentage points from the previous week to 85.7%, compared with expectations for just a 0.3-percentage-point decrease.
U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Oct. 6:
Crude Gasoline Distillates Refinery Use EIA data: +10.2 -1.3 -1.8 -1.6 Forecast: +0.9 +0.4 -0.3 -0.3
Note: Numbers in millions of barrels, with the exception of refinery use, which is in percentage points.
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