New York (awp/afp) – Weekly commercial crude oil reserves in the United States fell sharply again last week, more than analysts expected, but those of gasoline rose, according to data published on Wednesday by the US Energy Information Agency (EIA).
During the week ended August 18, these crude inventories fell by 6.1 million barrels to 433.5 million barrels. Analysts had expected a smaller decrease of 3 million, according to a Bloomberg consensus.
Gasoline reserves have increased by 1.5 million barrels while projections were counting on a decrease of nearly half a million barrels.
“Continued strength in refining activity and crude exports supported a sharp decline in oil inventories, while the peak of refinery operations in the summer led to an increase in the production of gasolines and distillates. “, explained Matt Smith of Kpler.
The activity rate of refineries remained at 94.5% after 94.7% the week before.
Crude prices reduced their decline around 3:00 p.m. GMT. A barrel of Brent from the North Sea, for delivery in October, lost 1.07% to 83.11 dollars.
Its American equivalent, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), for delivery the same month, which is the first day of use as a benchmark contract, dropped 0.99% to 78.82 dollars.
Crude production in the United States rose to 12.8 million barrels per day “a post-pandemic high”, noted Matt Smith.
Exports remained solid at 4.2 million b/d (-341,000 barrels) and imports rose to 6.9 mb/d from 7.1 mb/d the previous week.
The government has marginally refilled the tanks of strategic reserves which amount to 348.9 million barrels against 348.4 million.
Demand fell to 21.16 million barrels per day from 21.66 mb/d the week before.
On average over four weeks, an indicator closely followed by operators, deliveries of gasoline, kerosene and distilled products are up 4.5% compared to those of last year at the same time at 20.894 million barrels per day.
afp/rp
2023-08-23 15:15:02
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