Crude Oil Inventory Surprisingly Dropped, Supporting Price

The report from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that total crude oil and petroleum products (ex. SPR) stocks slumped -9.81 mmb to 1228.91 mmb in the week ended October 15. Crude oil inventory slipped -0.43 mmb to 426.54 mmb, compared with consensus of a +1.86 mmb increase. Inventory slipped in 3 out of 5 PADDs. PADD2 (Midwest) alone saw -2.22 mmb decline during the week. Cushing stock declined -2.32 mmb to 31.23. Utilization rate slipped -2 percentage points to 84.7% while crude production dipped -0.1 mmb to 10.3M bpd for the week. Crude oil imports decreased -0.17M bpd to 5.83M bpd in the week.

Concerning refined oil product inventories, gasoline inventory sank -5.37 mmb to 217.74 mmb while demand rose +4.88% to 9.63M bpd. The market had anticipated a -1.27 mmb fall in stockpile. Production jumped +10.42% to 10.61M bpd while imports soared +11.6% to 0.606M bpd during the week. Distillate stockpile declined -3.31 mmb to 125.39 mmb. The market had anticipated a -0.7 mmb decrease. Demand gained +8.8% to 4.28M bpd. Imports gained +6.32% to 0.2 mmb while production dropped -6.14% to 4.42M bpd during the week.

A day earlier, the industry-sponsored API estimated that crude oil inventory rose +3.29 mmb. Gasoline stockpile dropped -3.5 mmb, while that for distillate was down -3 mmb.