During the week ending Nov. 25, commercial reserves fell by 12.6 million barrels, four times the 3.1 million expected by analysts.
Commercial inventories of crude oil fell sharply last week in the United States, according to data released Wednesday by the United States Energy Information Agency (EIA), a decline attributed in part to an acceleration in refining activity.
During the week ending Nov. 25, these commercial stocks fell by 12.6 million barrels, or four times the 3.1 million expected by analysts, according to a consensus set by the Bloomberg agency.
This unexpected collapse is partly explained by the statistical adjustments made by the EIA, which added about 10.1 million barrels to the quantities sent to the refineries during the week.
At the end of the maintenance and maintenance season, the refinery’s capacity utilization rate rose to 95.2% (up from 93.9% the previous week), a level the United States had not known for more than three years.
“With the high margins” offered by refined products relative to crude oil prices, “refineries are really revving up,” commented Andrew Lebow, of Commodity Research Group, who said he was surprised at the 16.6 million barrels delivered. daily to refineries, significantly higher (+6%) than in the same period last year.
“Crude demand was high last week” in the US, the analyst insisted.
Another element that justifies the significant contraction in commercial inventories is the slowdown in imports (-14%) combined with the acceleration in exports (+16%) of crude oil.
In addition to commercial inventories, strategic reserves also declined last week, by 1.4 million barrels.
For Andrew Lebow, these figures are likely to drive up prices. At around 16:15 GMT, the price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the American variety of reference, for delivery in January, thus gained 2.63%, to 80.26 dollars.
A barrel of Brent from the North Sea, also for delivery in January, brought him 2.90%, to 85.44 dollars.
Paradoxically, the demand for refined products decreased slightly (-1%) compared to the previous week. “Gasoline demand is weak,” said Andrew Lebow.
“Last week was Thanksgiving (holiday),” she recalled. It “should be a good week” for fuel mileage, but it’s down 5% year over year.
For the week, production was unchanged at 12.1 million barrels per day.
