U.S. Crude-Oil Inventories Rise Less Than Forecast
April 29 2020 - 11:17AM
Dow Jones News Print
By Dan Molinski
U.S. inventories of crude oil rose less than forecast and gasoline inventories unexpectedly declined as coronavirus-driven demand destruction appears to be carving out a bottom, according to data released Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration.
Benchmark U.S. oil prices, which were sharply higher before the mostly bullish report was released, remained higher afterward. The Nymex crude contract for June delivery was recently up 34% at $16.53 a barrel.
Crude-oil stockpiles climbed by 9 million barrels to 527.6 million barrels, putting them about 10% above the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted crude stockpiles would rise by 11 million barrels from the prior week.
U.S. crude-oil production fell by a modest 100,000 barrels a day last week to 12.1 million barrels a day, the EIA said.
Oil stored at Cushing, the delivery point for U.S. stocks, rose by 3.6 million barrels, to 63.4 million barrels, the EIA said in its weekly report.
Gasoline stockpiles surprisingly fell by 3.7 million barrels to 259.6 million barrels, while analysts were expecting them to rise by 2.7 million barrels from the previous week.
Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, rose by 5.1 million barrels to 142 million barrels, and are now about 4% above the five-year average, the EIA said.
Earlier in the week, analysts had forecast supplies would rise by just 3.7 million barrels from the previous week.
The refining capacity utilization rate unexpectedly increased by 2 percentage points from the previous week to 69.6%. Analysts had forecast a 0.8 percentage-point decline.
U.S. oil inventories for the week ended April 24:
Crude Gasoline Distillates Refinery Use
EIA data: +9.0 -3.7 +5.1 +2.0
Forecast: +11.0 +2.7 +3.7 -0.8
Note: Numbers in millions of barrels, with the exception of refinery use, which is in percentage points.
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