U.S. crude stocks rose last week as a jump in production after an extreme freeze outweighed a slower recovery in refinery runs and exports, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.
Crude inventories rose by 1.2 million barrels to 421.9 million barrels in the week ended January 26, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 217,000-barrel draw.
Stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub fell by 2 million barrels last week, the EIA said.
Oil production climbed 700,000 bpd to 13 million barrels, recovering after the cold temperatures shut in operations around the country. North Dakota production had fallen by as much as half, but this week was returning to near normal levels.
“The big point here is that things have largely recovered from the freeze,” said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho Bank.
Crude exports fell by 540,000 barrels per day to 3.89 million bpd, as fog in the Houston, Texas area impacted loadings, Kpler analyst Matt Smith said.
Net U.S. crude imports rose last week by 565,000 bpd, EIA said.
Oil prices were little changed after EIA data. U.S. crude was down $1.5, or 1.9 per cent at $76.29 a barrel at 12:03 p.m. ET, while Brent traded down $1.06 or 1.3 per cent at $81.81 per barrel.
Inputs of crude at U.S. refineries fell to the lowest level since January 2023, as refinery utilization rates dipped by 2.6 percentage points in the week to 82.9 per cent, the lowest since December 2022 last week, according to the EIA.
“When temperatures got so cold down there on the Gulf Coast, the refineries have had to shut in about 15 per cent of their production … It takes a bit to wind them back up,” said Tim Snyder, an economist at Matador Economics.
Analysts and executives largely expect shut ins from the cold weather to advance maintenance at refineries this quarter.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 2.5 million barrels in the week to 130.7 million barrels. That compared with expectations for a 0.4 million-barrel drop, the EIA data showed.
U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 1.2 million barrels in the week to 254.1 million barrels, the highest since February 2021, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.5 million-barrel build.