US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 2.5 million barrels to 407 million barrels, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported recently. The increase exceeded market expectations, which had forecast a decrease of 1.5 million barrels.
According to the EIA, during the same period, stocks at the Cushing oil storage in Oklahoma, a key distribution hub for oil, rose by 2.4 million barrels.
At oil refineries (OR), the volume of crude oil processed decreased by 183,000 barrels per day, and the utilization rate of production capacity fell by 0.7 percentage points to 96.5%.
Gasoline inventories decreased by 1.6 million barrels to 209.7 million barrels, slightly exceeding the market forecast of a 1.3 million barrel decline.
Distillate stocks, including diesel fuel and heating oil, decreased by 3.5 million barrels to 107.2 million barrels. This contradicts forecasts that suggested an increase of 206,000 barrels.
According to the EIA, during the reporting week, US net crude oil imports increased by 297,000 barrels per day.
