Brent gains on US crude stock draw

Front-month ICE Brent crude futures climbed $0.72/bbl higher in the half hour after official weekly figures from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) were released this afternoon.

PHOTO: Getty Images

Commercial US crude oil stocks were drawn by 3.12 million bbls in the week to 28 October, when they recorded a four-week low of 436.83 million bbls.

The stocks were drawn amid a slowdown in Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) releases and higher refinery utilisation.

SPR stocks were drawn by 1.93 million bbls, which was far lower than the 4.89 million-bbl average draw for in previous October weeks, and September’s average 6.72 million-bbl weekly draw.

More crude was drawn from storage tanks to feed refineries. US refinery utilisation rose by 1.7 percentage points to a four-week high of 90.6%.

East Coast utilisation has been maxed out for two weeks and refineries in the Midwest, Gulf Coast and Rocky Mountains have averaged around 90% utilisation. West Coast utilisation has been trailing behind at around 80%, but rose to 84.7% in the latest week.

By Erik Hoffmann

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