Crude oil prices fell on Wednesday after the Energy Information Administration reported an extraction of crude oil stock of 3.5 million barrels for the week to April 2, along with a sharp rise in gasoline stock and an increase in distillates.
This compares with the decline in stocks of 900,000 barrels reported for the previous week and analysts’ expectations for an inventory extraction of 1,325 million barrels for that period.
A day earlier, the American Petroleum Institute had estimated a 2.62 million barrel crude oil extraction, but a much larger increase in gasoline stocks, which put additional pressure on already weighed prices by increasing the number of crude oil inventories. Covid-19 infections in several large markets.
In terms of gasoline, the EIA estimated an inventory construction of 4 million barrels for the reporting period, compared to a decline of 1.7 million barrels a week earlier. Gasoline production averaged 9.3 million bpd last week, a slight decrease from the previous week.
In a separate report, the EIA said this week that it expected summer petrol consumption to continue to improve, having already risen from 7.7 million bpd in January to 8.6 million bpd in March.
In medium distillates, the authority reported an estimated 1.5 million barrels for the week to April 2, compared to a construction of 2.5 million barrels for the previous week.
Average distillate production averaged 4.6 million bpd last week, down from the previous week, when production averaged 4.7 million bpd.
Oil prices have benefited from the effects of economic optimism in the United States, with March employment data suggesting that employment is strong, even if it has not yet caught up with pre-pandemic employment levels and is on track for growth this quarter and later in the year.
On the other hand, the number of infections is still rising in many parts of the world, including much of the US, which has a negative effect on prices.
At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $ 62.48 a barrel, with West Texas Intermediate at $ 59.03 a barrel, both slightly lower than opening trades.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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