Crude Inventories Decline By 2.5 Million Barrels

On June 20, 2024, EIA released its Weekly Petroleum Status Report. The report indicated that crude inventories declined by 2.5 million barrels from the previous week, compared to analyst consensus of -2.0 million barrels. At current levels, crude inventories are about 4% below the five-year average for this time of the year.

Total motor gasoline inventories declined by 2.3 million barrels, compared to analyst consensus of +1.1 million barrels. Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 1.7 million barrels.

U.S. crude oil imports declined by 1.3 million bpd, averaging 7.1 million bpd. Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged 7.3 million bpd.

Strategic Petroleum Reserve increased from 370.5 million barrels to 370.9 million barrels as U.S. continued to buy oil for reserves.

Domestic oil production remained unchanged at 13.2 million bpd. It remains to be seen whether current oil prices will provide sufficient incentives to raise production to new highs.

WTI oil moved towards the $81.50 level as traders reacted to the EIA report. Falling gasoline inventories may provide additional support to WTI oil in the upcoming trading sessions. From the technical point of view, WTI oil has recently managed to settle above the previous resistance at $79.00 – $80.00 and is moving towards the next resistance level at $83.50 – $84.50.

Brent oil tested new highs near the $86.00 level after the release of the EIA data. Traders stay bullish due to solid demand and rising geopolitical tensions.

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