WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th January, 2022) US gasoline stockpiles increased� by almost 8 million barrels last week after the previous week's 10-million barrel climb, data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed Wednesday as the Omicron variant slowed mobility in the United States.
Automobile fuel gasoline is the United States' most-consumed oil product. Stockpiles of that have grown by almost 30 million barrels over the past six weeks, EIA data showed.
US inventories of oil distillates, which are refined into diesel for trucks, buses, trains and ships as well as fuel for jets, meanwhile rose by 2.54 million barrels last week after an increase of 1.76 million barrels the previous week.
Analysts said the data suggested that US refiners were turning a surfeit of crude into fuel products while the Omicron variant was clearly reducing driving, work-commuting and other activities that required fuels.
"It's quite perplexing to see these sorts of fuel stockpiles, which we haven't had for nearly two years since the worst of the coronavirus pandemic," John Kilduff, founding partner at New York-based energy hedge fund Again Capital, said. "It shows that refiners are still turning out gasoline like anything although it's already winter, with fewer people driving, especially with Omicron cases on the rise."
US crude oil itself saw a stockpile drop of 4.6 million barrels last week, on top of the previous week's drop of 2.1 million. Crude stockpiles fell by more than 16 million barrels for all of December and are down almost 7 million more since this year began, explaining the current balance of gasoline and distillates in the market.
US hospitalizations due to coronavirus infections have reached a new record high, data showed on Wednesday, although the Omicron variant itself remains significantly less lethal compared to the original coronavirus strain and the subsequent Delta variant. Omicron has also put on hold employers' plans of bringing workers back to office, impacting driving, commuting and other mobility that contributes to daily fuel usage.
