U.S. crude and distillate inventories fell in the week ending December 13 as exports surged, while gasoline stockpiles rose, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday.
Crude inventories fell by 934,000 barrels to 421 million barrels in the week, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.6 million-barrel draw.
U.S. crude exports rose by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) last week to 4.89 million (bpd). Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 108,000 barrels to 23 million barrels, the EIA said.
“The big number and the big reason why we had a draw is from the export number,” say Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho.
He pointed to a widening of the spread between Brent and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures at the end of November to nearly $4.50 a barrel, which encouraged more flows across the Atlantic Ocean to higher priced markets. That spread was trading around $3.40 a barrel on Wednesday.
“I would assume that’s when a lot of those deals were booked for exports,” Yawger added.
Oil futures extended gains on Wednesday following the report. Global Brent futures were up 77 cents to $73.96 a barrel at 10:52 a.m. EST (1552 GMT), while WTI futures were up $1.05 to $71.13 a barrel.
Refinery crude runs fell by 48,000 barrels per day in the week, and utilization rates fell by 0.6 percentage points to 91.8%, the EIA said. The four-week average for utilization was at 92%, up from 90.7% over the same period a year ago.
“Refiners are running pretty hard for this time of year,” said Phil Flynn, a senior analyst for Price Futures Group. “It’s probably reflective of the fact that demand that is pretty darn good.”
Total product supplied, a proxy for demand, was at 20.8 million bpd, up 662,000 bpd from the prior week.
U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 2.3 million barrels in the week to 222 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 2.1 million-barrel build.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 3.2 million barrels in the week to 118.2 million barrels, versus expectations for a 0.7 million-barrel rise, the EIA data showed.
Distillate demand rose to the highest level last week since March 2022.
Both heating oil futures and gasoline futures (RBc1) were up following the report.
Net U.S. crude imports fell by 1.13 million bpd, EIA said.
(Reporting by Liz Hampton in Denver; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)