Weekly commercial crude oil reserves in the United States increased by 5.9 million barrels, more than analysts had expected, following a record decline the previous week.
According to data released Wednesday by the US Energy Information Agency (EIA), during the week ended August 4, these inventories amounted to 445.6 million barrels. Analysts projected a smaller increase in commercial crude reserves of 2.3 million barrels, according to a consensus established by the Bloomberg agency.
This restoration of stocks comes after a record drop of 17 million barrels in crude oil reserves the week of July 28, following in particular a jump in exports.
Good news for the oil market, gasoline stocks fell by 2.7 million barrels, much more than the decrease of 200,000 barrels forecast by analysts, reflecting the many trips during the summer period.
Crude prices already on the rise before this announcement rose by 1.20% to 87.18 dollars for a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in October around 3:00 p.m. GMT.
That of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), for delivery in September, rose 1.40% to 84.10 dollars.
The rebound in inventories is explained in particular by an increase in crude oil production of 400,000 barrels per day to 12.6 million b/d. Imports remained stable but exports fell sharply, by more than 2.9 million barrels per day.
Strategic oil reserves, which the Biden government has begun to refill, rose by a million barrels to 347.8 million barrels.
Demand rose to 20.72 million barrels per day from 20.02 million the week before.
On average over four weeks, an indicator closely followed by operators, deliveries of gasoline, kerosene and distilled products are up 2.9% compared to those of last year at the same time at 20.698 million barrels per day.
2023-08-09 15:16:05
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