By Le Figaro with AFP
Posted
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Commercial crude oil reserves took off last week in the United States, according to figures released on Wednesday by the United States Energy Information Agency (EIA), marking their eighth consecutive weekly increase, amid weakening asked.
These commercial stocks rose by 16.3 million barrels, eight times the variation anticipated by analysts (+2 million), according to a consensus established by the Bloomberg agency. They are now at their highest level since the beginning of June 2021. The market reacted badly to this surprise figure, and prices accelerated their decline after the publication. Around 4:00 p.m. GMT, a barrel of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in March fell 1.44% to 77.92 dollars.
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Increase of 53 million barrels
Since mid-December, the inventory of crude oil held by private interests in the United States has increased by 53 million barrels, in the middle of the winter season, which usually marks a drop in these inventories. This new jump in commercial reserves is partly explained by the still high level of net imports (difference between imports and exports), which reached 3 million barrels per day during the week ended February 10.
Over the week, the volumes of black gold available on the American market therefore rose by 21 million barrels due to imports. As since the beginning of January, the American strategic crude reserves (SPR) have remained unchanged.
The government of President Joe Biden announced on Monday that it would withdraw 26 million barrels from SPRs in the coming weeks to comply with a law passed by the United States Congress in 2015. Another factor justifying the increase in commercial stocks, the slowdown refinery activity, whose utilization rate stood at 86.5%, against 87.9% the previous week.
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The month of February traditionally corresponds to a maintenance period for refiners, which mechanically reduces their production capacities. Last element of explanation, the decline in demand, already weakened for several months. It contracted 6% over a week. On average over four weeks, data favored by analysts, it is now 10% lower than its 2022 level at the same time.
Last week’s downturn was due in particular to the collapse in demand for propane (-44% over one week) and the slowdown in kerosene (-6%), despite the restoration of air transport. As for production, it remained stable at 12.3 million barrels per day.
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