Stockpiles of US crude tumbled by some seven million barrels last week as record high exports and a smaller-than-usual release from the nation's emergency oil reserve helped offset two weeks of bloated inventories, data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed Wednesday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th August, 2022) Stockpiles of US crude tumbled by some seven million barrels last week as record high exports and a smaller-than-usual release from the nation's emergency oil reserve helped offset two weeks of bloated inventories, data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed Wednesday.
Exports of crude oil hit an all-time high of five million barrels during the week ended August 12 while the Biden administration released just under 3.5 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) compared with its typical weekly release of five-to-six million barrels that are aimed at bridging supply shortfalls in the market.
"It's a story of exports, exports, exports for US crude," John Kilduff, partner at New York energy hedge fund Again Capital, said. "The smaller-than-usual SPR release combined with that to bring down stockpiles from the previous two weeks."
Stockpiles of crude had ballooned by around 10 million barrels during the weeks of August 5 and July 29 combined.� For the latest week, industry analysts polled by US media had expected a crude drawdown of 275,000 barrels instead.
US oil production also ticked lower last week, to an estimated 12.1 million barrels per day from a previous 12.2 million, helping reduce crude stockpiles.
In the case of gasoline, the top automobile fuel in America, inventories tumbled by 4.64 million, adding to the previous week's outsized drawdown of 4.98 million barrels. Analysts had expected a crude stockpile drop of just 1.1 million barrels for last week.
US consumption of gasoline slumped in mid-June as pump prices hit record highs of $5 per gallon, prompting Americans to conserve fuel. Prices have fallen since to just below $4 per gallon, encouraging demand again.
As per the EIA data, demand for gasoline at US pumps stood at 9.34 million barrels last week, versus the previous week's 9.12 million and the year-ago level of 9.33 million.
Distillate stockpiles were about the only negative thing in the weekly inventory numbers released by the EIA.
Distillates - the oil variant required for making the diesel needed for trucks, buses and trains, as well as the fuel for jets - rose by 766,000 barrels last week,� on top of the previous week's build of 2.17 million. Analysts had forecast a build of 440,000 barrels.
