Crude Inventories Increase By 0.8 Million Barrels

On September 11, 2024, EIA released its Weekly Petroleum Status Report. The report indicated that crude inventories increased by 0.8 million barrels from the previous week, compared to analyst consensus of +1.0 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 grew by 2.3 million barrels from the previous week, while analysts expected that they would decrease by 0.1 million barrels. Distillate fuel inventories have also increased by 2.3 million barrels.

U.S. crude oil imports increased by 1.1 million barrels, averaging 6.9 million bpd. Crude oil imports averaged 6.5 million bpd over the past four weeks.

Strategic Petroleum Reserve increased from 379.7 million barrels to 380.0 million barrels as U.S. continued to buy oil for reserves.

Domestic oil production remained unchanged at 13.3 million bpd. Companies are not ready to raise production at current oil price levels.

WTI oil pulled back below the $66.00 level as traders reacted to the report. Gasoline inventories have significantly exceeded analyst expectations, which was bearish for oil markets.

Brent oil declined below the $69.50 level after the release of the EIA report. From a big picture point of view, traders remain worried about the potential slowdown of the U.S. economy and the weakness of China’s demand for oil.

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