(New York) Commercial crude oil inventories contracted by 2.5 million barrels last week in the United States, according to figures released Thursday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), a period marked by an acceleration in demand.
This decline, in line with analysts’ expectations, according to a consensus established by the Bloomberg agency, is due in particular to a clear acceleration in exports, which increased by 38% over one week.
At the same time, imports slowed significantly (-15%).
For Matt Smith, Kpler analyst, this revival in exports “was sufficient to offset the decline in refinery activity and cause a drop in inventories”.
The capacity utilization rate of American refineries thus fell to 93.5% compared to 95% the previous week.
The EIA also noted a surge in demand (9.6% over one week), the highest in almost three months.
With the exception of propane, all refined product categories saw an increase in deliveries to the U.S. market, considered a demand indicator, including gasoline ( 3.8%).
Gasoline consumption is at its highest for almost a year (end of June 2023).
This surge led to a drop in gasoline inventories of 2.3 million barrels, while analysts had forecast an increase of 1.1 million.
The so-called “other products” category, which notably includes refined products intended for the petrochemical industry, also experienced a sharp increase (29%).
Crude production remained unchanged at 13.2 million barrels per day, not far from the absolute record of 13.3 million.
For Matt Smith, this is a report “rather likely to support prices”.
But the market received this publication quite coolly.
After gaining up to 1%, a barrel of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in July only gained 0.88%, to $81.85, around 11:40 a.m. (Eastern time).