Crude Inventory Rises Less Than Expected

Total gasoline inventories increased by 1.7 million barrels last week and remain in the upper limit of the five-year average range. Total motor gasoline supplied averaged about 8.4 million barrels a day over the past four weeks — a rise of about 4.7% compared with the same period a year ago.

Distillate inventories decreased by 1 million barrels last week, and are near the lower limit of the average range. Distillate product supplied averaged 3.5 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down 3.6% when compared with the same period last year. Distillate production totaled 4.5 million barrels a day last week, up about 200,000 barrels a day when compared with the prior week.

The American Petroleum Institute reported an inventory increase of 3.63 million barrels in crude supplies last week. Platts estimated a build of 3 million barrels in crude inventories for last week. Dow Jones estimates called for a crude inventory build of 2.9 million barrels, an increase of 900,000 barrels in gasoline supplies and a drop of 600,000 barrels in distillate supplies.

Crude prices were about 1% lower before the EIA report at $95.66 a barrel and rose slightly, to around $95.79 following the report.

For the past week, crude imports averaged about 7.6 million barrels a day, an decrease of about 499,000 barrels a day from the previous week. Refineries were running at 84.2% of capacity, with daily input of 14.4 million barrels a day, about 50,000 barrels a day less than the previous week.

The United States Oil ETF (NYSEMKT: USO) is down 0.8%, at $34.75 in a 52-week range of $29.02 to $42.30.

The United States Gasoline ETF (NYSEMKT: UGA) is down 0.8%, at $63.38 in a 52-week range of $45.13 to $64.43.