Crude inventories rose another 6.33 million barrels last week, according to data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) last week, adding to last week’s increase of more than 3 million barrels.
U.S. crude inventories increased by 13 million barrels last year, while crude held in the U.S. Strategic Oil Reserve fell by 221 million barrels last year, according to API data. This week, the SPR stock has been stable for the third straight week. 371.6 million That’s because the emergency release announced by the Biden administration last spring has been completed. The SPR now contains the lowest amount of crude oil since early December 1983.
Oil prices were mixed on Tuesday in the run-up to the data release. At 2:39 pm ET, WTI rose $0.88 (+1.13%) for the day to $78.78 per barrel. Brent crude fell $0.47 (-0.55%) to trade at $84.43, down about $1.80 a barrel on the week.
US crude oil production remained at 12.2 million bpd for the third straight week in the week ending Jan. 20. This is the highest production rate since August last year. US production remains 900,000 bpd below the peak production seen in March 2020.
WTI was trading at $79.13 shortly after the data was released.
Gasoline inventories increased by 2.73 million barrels after last week’s API data showed fuel inventories increased by 620,000 barrels. Distillates increased by 1.53 million barrels after falling by 1.929 million barrels the previous week.
Cushing, Oklahoma stocks increased by 2.72 million barrels on top of the 3.378 million barrel increase reported last week.
Oilprice.com by Julianne Geiger
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