Sharp Rise in U.S. Crude Inventory

Total gasoline inventories decreased by 1.6 million barrels last week and remain in the middle of the five-year average range. Total motor gasoline supplied averaged more than 8.4 million barrels a day over the past four weeks — a drop of about 0.2% compared with the same period a year ago.

Distillate inventories fell by about 4.5 million barrels last week and are near the lower half of the average range. Distillate product supplied averaged about 3.8 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up about 5.8% when compared with the same period of last year. Distillate production totaled 4.2 million barrels a day last week, down by about 100,000 barrels a day when compared with the prior week.

The American Petroleum Institute last night reported an inventory increase of 3.7 million barrels in crude supplies last week, together with a decrease of 2 million barrels in gasoline supplies and a drop of 1.9 million barrels in distillate supplies. Platts estimated a build of 1.6 million barrels in crude inventories and decreases of 1.6 million barrels for gasoline stocks and 700,000 barrels for distillate stocks. Dow Jones had projected a rise in crude inventories of 700,000 barrels.

Crude prices were down about 0.4% before the EIA report at around $95.90 a barrel, and they fell by another $0.20 immediately following the report.

For the past week, crude imports averaged more than 8.2 million barrels a day, an increase of about 841,000 barrels a day from the previous week. Refineries were running at 85.7% of capacity, with daily input of 14.9 million barrels a day, about 364,000 barrels a day more than the previous week. Refineries have increased production now that routine maintenance and the switch to summer-grade fuel reaches completion.

The United States Oil ETF (NYSEMKT: USO) is down about 0.5%, at $34.27 in a 52-week range of $29.02 to $40.29.

The United States Gasoline ETF (NYSEMKT: UGA) is down 0.2%, at $61.39, in a 52-week range of $45.13 to $65.86.