The Energy Information Administration reported late Thursday that crude oil inventories rose more than expected during the week ending November 8, as product stock levels fell dramatically.
The US oil inventories rose 2.1 million barrels, to 429.7 millions barrels. This was 4% less than the average of the last five years for this time.
Analysts expected crude stock levels in the US to increase by only 400,000 barrels over the past week.
The EIA reported that refineries were operating at 91.4% of capacity last week compared to 89.1% the week before.
Stockpiles of oil in the US have also been a major factor in global oil prices.
Brent crude oil is currently trading at $71.57 per barrel down 1.4% compared to the previous close. West Texas Intermediate crude was also 1.5% lower.
Stocks of products plummet
According to data, the US gasoline stocks dropped 4.4 million barrels in one week to 206.9 millions barrels.
Stocks of distillate also decreased by 1.4 millions barrels, to 114.4million barrels.
EIA reported that gasoline and distillate inventories were respectively 4% and 5 % below the average five-year level.
Stocks of residual oil rose by only 200,000 barrels, to 23.7 millions barrels. Last week, propane and propylene inventories fell by 2.1 millions barrels.
Production
Crude oil production was 13,4 million barrels a day in the US in the week ending November 8. This is down 100,000 barrels a day from the previous week.
The country has continued to pump crude oil at record levels in recent months.
In its Short Term Energy Outlook published earlier this week, the EIA raised the forecast crude oil production for the US.
EIA estimates that US oil production will average 13,23 million barrels a day by 2024. This is slightly more than the 13.22 million barrels per daily estimated in October’s Report.
The US oil production will likely reach record levels in 2024, with a forecast of about 300 000 barrels per day more than the 2023 record.
According to EIA, the oil production for 2025 was even higher, at 13,53 million barrels per daily.
Imports & exports
Last week, the US imported crude oil at a rate of 6.51 million barrels a day. This is 260,900 barrels more than they did a year ago.
As of last week the average four-week import volume was 6.29 million barrels per day, down by 0.2% compared to the same period one year earlier.
The data revealed that US exports increased by 590,000.00 barrels per day to 3.44 million barrels each day.
Last week, the four-week export average was 23.4% less than it had been a year ago. This equated to 3.67 million barrels of oil per day.
Last week, imports from Ecuador increased by the highest amount of 210,000 barrels a day to 247,000 barrels a day.
Last week, the imports of crude from Saudi Arabia dropped by 303,000 barrels a day.
Last week, crude oil stocks at Cushing, Oklahoma (the delivery point for WTI) fell by 700 000 barrels, to 25.2 millions barrels.
As of November 8, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in the US increased by 600,000 barrels and reached 387.8 millions barrels.
Recently, the US government expressed an interest in buying up to 3,000,000 barrels of crude to replenish its strategic reserves.
This post US crude stocks rise more than expected, while products stocks fall: EIA could be updated as new updates unfold
