Crude oil inventories in the United States rose by 1.7 million barrels during the week ending March 14, according to data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Before the EIA’s report, crude oil prices were down. This followed a report from the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday, which showed a 4.593 million-barrel increase in U.S. crude oil inventories, despite a strong drop in gasoline stocks. By 10:05 a.m. ET, the Brent benchmark had fallen 0.14%, trading at $70.46, close to the previous week’s level. The WTI benchmark was down 0.25%, at $66.73, about 50 cents lower than the week before.
The EIA also reported a 500,000-barrel decrease in total motor gasoline inventories for the week ending March 14. Gasoline production averaged 9.6 million barrels per day, consistent with the previous week’s production levels.
For middle distillates, the EIA noted a decrease of 2.8 million barrels in inventories, while production rose to an average of 4.6 million barrels per day. In comparison, the previous week saw a smaller inventory drop of 1.6 million barrels, with production averaging 4.5 million barrels per day. Distillate inventories are now 6% below the five-year average for this time of year.
Over the past four weeks, total products supplied averaged 20.6 million barrels per day, marking a 2.5% increase compared to the same period last year. Distillate products supplied rose by 8.3% year-over-year, while gasoline supplies remained stable compared to last year.
Oil prices began to climb shortly after the EIA’s data release.
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