U.S. crude oil inventories increased unexpectedly last week as imports surged, while gasoline and distillate stockpiles fell more than anticipated, according to the latest data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Crude oil stockpiles rose by 244,000 barrels to 443.1 million barrels in the week ending April 18. This was contrary to analysts’ expectations, which had predicted a decline of 770,000 barrels, according to a Reuters poll. U.S. crude imports jumped by 1.14 million barrels per day, reaching a total of 2 million bpd.
Despite the surprise build in crude inventories, both Brent and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures saw some of their losses reversed after the data was released. By midday, both benchmarks were down about 2%.
Refinery activity also increased, with crude runs rising by 325,000 bpd, and refinery utilization climbing 1.8 percentage points to 88.1% of total capacity. However, despite these gains, fuel inventories still fell more than expected.
U.S. gasoline stockpiles dropped by 4.5 million barrels, bringing the total down to 229.5 million barrels. This drop was much larger than analysts had forecast, which was a decrease of just 1.4 million barrels. Distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 2.4 million barrels to 106.9 million barrels—the lowest level since November 2023. Analysts had only expected a modest 30,000-barrel decline.
Josh Young, chief investment officer at Bison Interests, commented, “We saw another bullish products inventory decline during build season. It doesn’t seem to reflect potential demand decline from Trump’s tariff/trade war yet.”
Meanwhile, the four-week average for jet fuel supplied rose to 1.86 million bpd, the highest level since December 2019, indicating growing demand for jet fuel despite the overall inventory trends.
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