Wednesday, 11 March 2015 21:20
NEW YORK: US crude stocks rose last week to record highs for the ninth straight week, while gasoline stocks decreased and distillate inventories rose, data from the Energy Information Administration showed on Wednesday.
Crude inventories rose 4.5 million barrels in the week to March 6 to 448.9 million, the highest level for this time of year in at least 80 years, the EIA said.
Analysts had expected an increase of 4.4 million barrels on average.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for the US light sweet crude contract traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange, rose 2.3 million barrels to 51.5 million, EIA said.
That put Cushing stocks only 324,000 barrels shy of the 51.9 million-barrel peak recorded by the EIA since it started keeping track of Cushing stocks in 2004.
Crude inventories grew even as refinery runs rose 187,000 barrels per day, EIA data showed. Refinery utilization rates rose by 1.2 percentage points to 87.8 percent of capacity.
“The fear of global supply glut that sent crude prices to six-year lows continues to hang over the market and we have not seen signs of enough lower production resulting from capital spending and drilling cuts,” said Gene McGillian, senior analyst at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.
US April crude futures were down 68 cents at $ 47.61 a barrel at 11:15 a.m. EDT (1515 GMT).
Brent April crude, approaching contract expiration on Monday, was up 36 cents at $ 56.75 a barrel, after briefly turning lower after the EIA report was released.
“US crude has fallen because of the rise in the dollar,” said Phil Flynn, analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago, who noted that Brent also has been supported because of more geopolitical risk to supply.
US East Coast refinery utilization rates jumped 19.5 percentage points to 81.8 percent last week, EIA data showed, after recent outages related to cold weather.
Gasoline stocks fell 187,000 barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.7 million-barrel drop.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose 2.5 million barrels, versus expectations for a 2.6 million-barrel drop, the EIA data showed.
US crude imports fell last week by 575,000 bpd.
Copyright Reuters, 2015
