US crude stocks fall amid higher exports
Front-month ICE Brent crude futures remained stable in the first hour after the official weekly oil figures from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) were released today.
PHOTO: Oil refinery complex with big American flag displayed, and fumes coming out from the chimney. Getty Images
Commercial crude oil inventories in the US dropped by 6.37 million bbls to 453.63 million bbls in the week ended 19 April.
The stocks fell amid higher US crude oil exports, which rose by 453,000 b/d to 5.18 million b/d last week. Crude oil exports from the US have increased for the second consecutive week.
"The large crude draw was the result of very high crude exports. Assume it is seen as one off and preliminary tanker tracking data shows lower exports so far this week – hence the price reaction," UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo tells ENGINE.
US refinery utilisation rose marginally by 0.4 percentage point to 88.5% last week.
Gasoline stocks slumped by 634,000 bbls over the week to 227 million bbls – the lowest since last December.
Distillate stocks, which include diesel and gasoil, rose by 1.61 million bbls to 117 million bbls.
By Debarati Bhattacharjee
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