US crude stocks drop as exports surge

The front-month ICE Brent crude futures remained steady in the first hour after the official weekly oil figures from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) were released today.

PHOTO: Oil refinery and pipeline in the desert during sunset. Getty Images

Commercial crude oil inventories in the US dropped by 1.63 million bbls to touch 418 million bbls on 13 September, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) released today.

The stocks dropped partly because of higher US crude oil exports. US crude oil exports rose by 1.28 million b/d to 4.59 million b/d on the week.

Refinery crude runs dropped by 282,000 b/d as the country's refinery utilisation fell by 0.7 percentage points to 92.1% last week.

Gasoline stocks rose by a marginal 69,000 bbls over the week to 222 million bbls, and distillate stocks rose by 125,000 bbls to 125 million bbls. Both gasoline and distillate stocks are at their highest level in five weeks.

By Debarati Bhattacharjee

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