EIA Shows US Crude Oil Inventories Continue To Slide
Crude oil inventories in the United States saw a decrease of 2 million barrels during the week ending May 2, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration released on Wednesday.
Crude oil prices were trading down prior to the crude data release by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. On Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a sizeable build in US crude oil inventories of 4.49 million barrels in U.S. crude oil inventories with draws in gasoline and distillate stocks.
At 11:01 am in New York, the Brent benchmark was trading down $0.45 per barrel (-0.72%) at $61.70, off nearly $1.50 a barrel from this time last week. WTI was trading down $0.37 (-0.63%) at $58.72 per barrel, a roughly $1 per barrel drop week over week.
For total motor gasoline, the EIA estimated that inventories increased by 200,000 barrels for the week to May 2, with daily production increasing to an average 9.7 million barrels. This compares with an inventory decrease of 4 million barrels for the previous week and an average daily production of 9.5 million barrels.
For middle distillates, the EIA estimated a decrease of 1.1 million barrels, with production holding increasing to 4.7 million barrels daily. This compares to an inventory increase of 900,000 barrels in the week prior, when production stood at an average of 4.6 million barrels daily. Distillate inventories are now 13% below the five-year average for this time of year.
Total products supplied over the last four weeks were up week over week, averaging 19.8 million barrels per day—a 0.6% increase from this time last year. Distillate products supplied over the last four weeks are up 3.1% compared to this time last year, while gasoline products supplied were up 3.5% from the same period last year.