EIA: US crude inventories drop as exports increase

Inventory draw fueled by increased crude exports of 620,000 bpd

Gasoline stock drops by 1.3 million bbls; demand is above 9 million bpd

Stockpiles of distillate drop by unexpectedly 565,000 bbls

By Stephanie Kelly

NEW YORK - U.S. crude stockpiles declined last week, as exports increased, and gasoline and distillate stocks also decreased, according to the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday.

The EIA reported that crude inventories dropped by 3 million barrels, to 423.7 million in the week ending August 1. This was higher than the analysts' polled expectation of a draw of 591,000 barrels.

The EIA reported that crude exports increased by 620,000 barrels a day (bpd), to 3.3 millions bpd. Stockpiles fell. The net U.S. imports of crude oil fell by 794,000 barrels per day.

Bob Yawger is director of energy futures for Mizuho. He said, "We had a nice draw here of 3,000,000, and the main reason was the exports." Refinery crude production increased by 213,000 barrels per day, and refinery utilization rates grew by 1.5 percentage points, to 96.9%, drawing further from crude inventories.

Refinery usage on the Gulf Coast as well as West Coast has reached its highest level since 2023.

The EIA reported that crude stocks at Cushing, Oklahoma's delivery hub for U.S. futures crude oil rose by 453,000 barils.

Oil futures were up around 1% in the immediate aftermath of the release.

The EIA reported that gasoline stocks dropped by 1.3m barrels last week, to 227.1m barrels. This was a far cry from the expectation of 400,000 barrels. ?

The product supplied of gasoline as a proxy for the demand fell by 112,000 barrels per day, but remained above 9,000,000 barrels per day. Yawger stated that "you don't want to ever see gasoline demand fall below 9 million barrels per day during the summer driving season. So we're holding on there."

The EIA reported that distillate stocks, which includes diesel and heating oil fell by 565,000 barrels last week, as opposed to expectations of a rise of 775,000 barrels.

(source: Reuters)