U.S. Crude Oil Stocks Fall More Than Expected in Week Ended Jan. 19 -- Update
24 January 2024 - 4:59PM
Dow Jones News
By Anthony Harrup
U.S. crude oil inventories fell more than expected last week as
production and refinery runs dropped amid severe winter weather
across much of the U.S., according to data released Wednesday by
the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Commercial crude-oil stocks excluding the Strategic Petroleum
Reserve fell by 9.2 million barrels to 420.7 million barrels in the
week ended Jan. 19, and were about 5% below the five-year average
for the time of year, the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall
Street Journal had predicted crude stockpiles would fall by 1.4
million barrels.
Storage in the SPR rose by 920,000 barrels to 356.5 million
barrels, the EIA said.
Oil stored at Cushing, Okla., the Nymex delivery hub, fell by 2
million barrels to 30.1 million. Refineries reduced their capacity
use to 85.5% from 92.6% the week before. Expectations were for
refinery runs to be down by 0.6 percentage point from the previous
week.
The EIA estimated that U.S. oil production fell by 1 million
barrels a day to 12.3 million barrels a day.
Last week's winter storm shut in as much as 700,000
barrels-a-day of oil production in North Dakota, according to the
state's pipeline authority. That has been gradually recovering, and
the authority said oil output in the state was down by 170,000 to
220,000 barrels a day as of Wednesday.
U.S. crude exports fell by 595,000 barrels a day to 4.4 million
barrels a day, and crude imports fell by 1.8 million barrels a day
to 5.6 million barrels a day.
Oil futures extended gains following the report. West Texas
Intermediate crude for March delivery was up 1.3% at $75.32 a
barrel and international benchmark Brent was 0.9% higher at $80.24
a barrel.
U.S. gasoline stockpiles rose by 4.9 million barrels last week
to 253 million barrels against expectations of a 1.5 million-barrel
build. Gasoline inventories are about 1% above the five-year
average, the EIA said.
Distillate stocks, mostly diesel, were down by 1.4 million
barrels at 133.3 million barrels and were 4% below the five-year
average. Expectations were for inventories of distillate fuels to
decline by 700,000 barrels.
Gasoline demand fell by 388,000 barrels a day from the previous
week to 7.9 million barrels a day, and distillates demand rose by
139,000 barrels a day to 3.8 million barrels a day, according to
the EIA.
Change in U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Jan. 19:
Crude Gasoline Distillates Refinery Use
EIA data: -9.2 4.9 -1.4 -7.1
Forecast: -1.4 1.5 -0.7 -0.6
Note: Numbers in millions of barrels, with the exception of
refinery use, which is in percentage points.
Write to Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 24, 2024 11:44 ET (16:44 GMT)
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