US crude stocks rise to highest level since July 2023

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: An oil pumpjack with the US flag in the background. Getty Images

Commercial crude oil inventories in the US rose by 5.84 million bbls to 457 million bbls on 5 April - its highest level since July last year.

The stock build came amid lower crude oil exports out of the US, which fell by 1.31 million b/d last week. On the other hand, crude oil imports rose by 1.13 million b/d, according to the EIA data.

Also helping the stock build, refinery crude runs in the US dropped by 1.15 million b/d, as refinery utilisation fell by 0.3 percentage point to 88.3% last week.

Gasoline stocks rose by 715,000 bbls over the week to 229 million bbls.

Distillate stocks, which include diesel and gasoil, grew by 1.66 million bbls to 118 million bbls, indicating lower demand.

By Debarati Bhattacharjee

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