U.S. commercial crude oil inventories increased by 3.8 million barrels from the previous week, well above the expected build of ~3.8 million barrels due to higher refinery utilization. Total crude oil stocks of 381.4 million barrels are well above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year. Total commercial petroleum inventories decreased by 2.4 million barrels last week.
[table]
[attr style=”width: 25%”]March 1`[attr style=”width: 25%”]February 22`[attr style=”width: 25%”]Change`[attr style=”width: 25%”]% Change
381,400`377,500`+3,900`+1.0%
[/table]
Source: EIA