US Crude Oil Inventory Dropped Less than Expected. Price Continued to Fall on Omicron Concerns

The report from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that total crude oil and petroleum products (ex. SPR) stocks rose +4.27 mmb to 1222.16 mmb in the week ended November 26. Crude oil inventory dropped -0.91 mmb to 433 mmb, compared with consensus of a -1.24 mmb decrease. Inventory increased in 3 out of 5 PADDs. For instance, PADD 3 (Gulf Coast) fell -2.81 mmb during the week. Cushing stock added +1.16 mmb to 28.54. Utilization rate added +0.2 percentage points to 88.8% while crude production added +0.1 mmb to 11.6M bpd for the week. Crude oil imports increased -0.178M bpd to 6.6M bpd in the week.

Concerning refined oil product inventories, gasoline inventory gained +4.03 mmb to 215.42 mmb while demand dropped -5.76 % to 8.8M bpd. The market had anticipated a +0.03 mmb growth in stockpile. Production slipped -4.46% to 9.65M bpd while imports soared +33.13% to 0.64M bpd during the week. Distillate stockpile gained +2.16 mmb to 123.88 mmb. The market had anticipated a +0.46 mmb increase. Demand fell -4.14% to 4.21M bpd. Imports slumped -29.52% to 0.23 mmb while production dropped -8.29% to 4.39M bpd during the week.

A day earlier, the industry-sponsored API estimated that crude oil inventory slipped -0.75 mmb. Gasoline stockpile rose +2.2 mmb, while that for distillate was up +0.8 mmb.