U.S. crude oil inventories rose by 509,000 barrels this week for the week ending May 3, according to the American Petroleum Institute (API). Analysts had expected 1.43 million barrels.
API reported that crude oil inventories increased by 4.906 million barrels last week.
On Tuesday, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) increased by 900,000 barrels as of May 3. Inventories now stand at 367.2 million barrels, the highest since April last year, but below June 2020’s inventory of 656 million barrels.
Oil prices remained relatively flat ahead of Tuesday’s release of API statistics as markets weighed the possibility of OPEC continuing production cuts beyond June against calm economic indicators and geopolitical risks. are doing.
As of 4:16 p.m. ET, Brent crude oil was trading at $83.29, down $0.04 on the day, and more than $4 per barrel lower than this time last week. The U.S. benchmark WTI was trading slightly higher on the day, 0.09% at $78.55, down about $3 per barrel from this point last week.
Gasoline inventories increased by 1.46 million barrels this week, countering last week’s decline of 1.48 million barrels. As of last week, gasoline inventories were about 3% below the five-year average for this time of year, according to the latest EIA data.
Distillate inventories also increased by 1.713 million barrels this week, almost offsetting last week’s decline of 2.187 million barrels. Distillates for the week ending April 26 were 7% below the average for the past five years, according to the latest EIA data.
Cushing inventories closed out production this week, increasing by 1.339 million barrels, following an increase of 1.479 million barrels the previous week, according to API data.
Written by Julian Geiger, Oilprice.com
