During the week ending Dec. 2, commercial reserves fell by 5.2 million barrels, far more than the 3.4 million barrel decline expected by analysts.
Commercial oil reserves contracted sharply again last week in the United States, according to data released Wednesday by the US Energy Information Agency (EIA), but US demand continues to show signs of weakening.
During the week ending Dec. 2, these commercial stocks fell by 5.2 million barrels, significantly more than the 3.4 million barrel decline expected by analysts, according to a consensus set by the Bloomberg agency.
At the same time, US strategic reserves were cut by 2.1 million barrels.
The decline in commercial inventories is largely due to buoyant refining activity. Refineries used 95.5% of their capacity, down from 95.2% a week earlier, the highest level since August 2019.
However, the weekly inventory report gave a mixed picture, which showed a significant increase in reserves of refined products.
Gasoline inventories significantly increased by 5.3 million barrels, more than double what the market expected (2.4 million).
There was also a significant increase in reserves of distilled products, which mainly include diesel, amounting to 6.2 million barrels.
This movement compares to demand for refined products in the US, which remained below its 2021 level at the same time last week.
On average over the past four weeks, the indicator favored by analysts, demand for gasoline is more than 7% lower than a year ago.
Crude oil exports plunged more than 30% last week, while imports remained unchanged.
Also noteworthy, production reached 12.2 million barrels per day, the highest since April 2020.
The United States thus breaks with the range between 11.9 and 12.1 million barrels in which production has been evolving for more than six months.
The publication weighed relatively little on the prices. At around 16:00 GMT, the price of US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil fell 0.88% to $73.59, close to its lowest level since late 2021.
