Crude oil inventories in the United States increased by 4.1 million barrels for the week ending February 7, according to the latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Crude oil prices had been declining earlier in the day before the EIA’s inventory report. This followed a large inventory build of 9.043 million barrels reported by the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday. As of 10:16 AM, just before the release, both Brent and WTI crude prices were down over 1%, trading at $75.93 and $72.15, respectively.
Today’s increase in crude inventories aligns with typical seasonal trends and adds to the previous week’s large inventory rise of 8.7 million barrels, as estimated by the EIA.
The EIA also reported a 3 million-barrel drop in total motor gasoline inventories for the week ending February 7. Gasoline production averaged 9.3 million barrels per day, up slightly from the previous week’s average of 9.2 million barrels per day, which had seen a 2.2 million-barrel inventory increase.
For middle distillates, the EIA noted a small inventory gain of 100,000 barrels, with production averaging 4.5 million barrels per day. This comes after a loss of 5.5 million barrels the week before, when production stood at 4.6 million barrels per day. Distillate inventories are now 11% below the five-year average for this time of year.
Over the past four weeks, total products supplied averaged 20.3 million barrels per day, a 2.8% increase compared to the same period last year. Distillate products supplied saw a 13.6% year-over-year rise, while gasoline supply grew by 0.9%.
After the data release, Brent crude traded at $75.85 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate at $72.08, both lower than their opening prices.
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