Brent drops despite US crude stock drop

The front-month ICE Brent crude contract dropped by $0.60/bbl in the first hour after the official weekly oil figures from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) were released today.

PHOTO: Oil pump jacks pictured at dusk. Getty Images

Commercial crude oil inventories in the US dropped by 4.65 million bbls to 426 million bbls in the week ending 16 August – the lowest since January.

Refinery crude runs rose by 222,000 b/d as the country's refinery utilisation increased by 0.8 percentage points to 92.3% last week.

Gasoline stocks dropped by 1.61 million bbls on the week to 221 million bbls.

Distillate stocks, which include diesel and gasoil, also dropped by 3.31 million bbls to 123 million bbls.

By Debarati Bhattacharjee

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