U.S. oil stockpiles rose across the board last week as crude imports grew and exports dipped and as gasoline and distillate demand weakened, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday.
Crude inventories rose by 833,000 barrels to 419.1 million barrels in the week ending Sept. 6, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 987,000-barrel rise.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub fell by 1.7 million barrels in the week.
Crude benchmarks pared gains after the data. Brent was up by 0.7 per cent and U.S. oil futures gained 1 per cent by 11:30 a.m. EDT (1530 GMT). Both had gained $1 earlier in the session.
Net U.S. crude imports rose by 1.5 million barrels per day to their highest since June, while crude exports fell by 451,000 bpd to 3.31 million bpd to their lowest level also since June.
“The import figure can be volatile from a week-to-week basis, and could be a reflection of what’s going on with shipping on the Gulf Coast,” said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates.
“Next week I suspect the statistics will be impacted by Hurricane Francine interrupting tanker flow through the Gulf of Mexico,” he added.
Energy facilities along the U.S. Gulf Coast this week scaled back operations and evacuated some production sites ahead of Francine, which strengthened into a hurricane on Tuesday night. The fourth hurricane of the Atlantic season was moving toward the Louisiana coast.
“This report appears to have dampened today’s rally, but surely the emphasis should be on how much havoc Hurricane Francine is set to wreak on the U.S. Gulf,” said Matt Smith, an analyst at energy data firm Kpler.
Refinery crude runs fell by 141,000 bpd last week, and refinery utilization rates fell by 0.5 percentage point to 92.8 per cent of total capacity.
Total product supplied, a measure of demand, dropped 1.2 million bpd week over week to 19.4 million bpd, and over the past four weeks totaled 20.5 million bpd, down 2.2 per cent on the year.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 2.3 million barrels in the week to 125 million barrels, versus expectations for a 300,000-barrel rise, the EIA data showed.
Gasoline stocks rose by 2.3 million barrels in the week to 221.6 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with forecasts for a 100,000-barrel draw.
Total gasoline supplied fell on the week by 460,000 bpd to 8.48 million barrels per day.
“A bearish weekly report, shows demand down, and gasoline demand especially low,” said Josh Young, chief investment officer at Bison Interests.
“It’s also possible product inventories were built up ahead of the incoming hurricane,” he added.