Oil has just seen its first drop in inventories from the DOE in what feels like many weeks. The DOE reported that weekly inventories fell by -4.7 million barrels in crude oil to 370.6 million barrels.
It also just saw a decline of -4.1 million barrels in gasoline to 208.3 million barrels. The only stand-out portion was distillates with a gain at +1.0 million barrels to 147.5 million barrels. The U.S. refineries ran at 83.7% capacity versus a report of 85.3% a week ago.
We were expecting another small build in crude and gasoline inventories. It seems that the summer draws are starting early this year, and we may just all be lucky that the seasonality is there at all in the recession. At least this draw is from much higher levels than last year.
Oil has actually backed off from the highs. The United States Oil (NYSE: USO) is up 0.5% at $32.80 after the report. NYMEX crude is still up, but only by $0.22 at $59.087 as of 10:46 AM EST.
JON C. OGG
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