U.S. Crude-Oil Inventories and Production Decline
June 23 2021 - 11:03AM
Dow Jones News
By Dan Molinski
U.S. inventories of crude oil fell more than expected and
domestic oil production also declined, according to data released
Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration.
Benchmark U.S. oil prices that were higher before the
mostly-bullish report came out extended those gains slightly
afterward. The Nymex front-month crude contract for August delivery
was recently up 1.5% at $73.91 a barrel.
Crude-oil stockpiles fell by 7.6 million barrels to 459.1
million barrels, and are now about 6% below the five-year average,
the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had
predicted crude stockpiles would fall by 4.1 million barrels from
the prior week.
Oil stored at Cushing, the delivery point for U.S. stocks, fell
by 1.8 million barrels from the previous week, to 41.7 million
barrels, the EIA said in its weekly report.
U.S. crude-oil production slipped by 100,000 barrels a day from
the previous week to 11.1 million barrels a day, according to the
EIA.
Gasoline stockpiles unexpectedly fell by 2.9 million barrels to
240.1 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations for
inventories to increase by 800,000 barrels from the previous
week.
Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel,
rose by 1.8 million barrels to 137.9 million barrels and are now
about 4% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Earlier in the
week, analysts had forecast distillate supplies would rise by
600,000 barrels from the previous week.
The refining capacity utilization rate unexpectedly fell by 0.4
percentage points from the previous week to 92.2%, compared with
analysts' forecasts for a 0.5 percentage-point increase from the
previous week.
U.S. oil inventories for the week ended June 18:
Crude Gasoline Distillates Refinery Use
EIA data: -7.4 -2.9 +1.8 -0.4
Forecast: -4.1 +0.8 +0.6 +0.5
Note: Numbers in millions of barrels, with the exception of refinery use, which is in
percentage points.
Write to Dan Molinski at dan.molinski@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 23, 2021 11:01 ET (15:01 GMT)
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