WTI Oil Pulls Back Towards $72 As Crude Inventories Exceed Expectations

Key Insights

• Crude inventories grew by 3.0 million barrels from the previous week. 
• The Strategic Petroleum Reserve declined from 364.9 million barrels to 362 million barrels. 
• WTI oil and Brent oil are down by more than 1.5% in today’s trading session. 

On May 10, EIA released its Weekly Petroleum Status report. The report indicated that crude inventories increased by 3.0 million barrels from the previous week, compared to analyst consensus of -0.9 million barrels.

Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 3.2 million barrels, while distillate fuel inventories declined by 4.2 million barrels. The report showed that crude oil imports averaged 5.6 million bpd, declining by 843,000 bpd from the previous week. Domestic oil production remained unchanged at 12.3 million bpd.

The U.S. continued to sell oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which declined from 364.9 million barrels to 362 million barrels. The SPR is at multi-decade lows. The low levels of oil reserves may ultimately serve as a material bullish catalyst for oil markets. In the near term, the sales of oil from SPR put some pressure on oil prices.

WTI oil declined below the $72.50 level after the release of the EIA data. Brent oil moved towards the $76.00 level. From a big picture point of view, today’s pullback looks healthy after the strong rebound in the previous trading sessions.

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