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US crude oil stocks declined by 1.5 mln barrels to 447 mln bbl in the week ended Friday, and were 3% below the five-year average for this time of the year, the Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report released Wednesday. Analysts polled by Dow Jones had estimated the inventory to remain unchanged last week. Petrol stocks fell 5.7 mln bbl last week to 234.1 mln bbl, according to the report.
Analysts had expected petrol stocks to fall by 1.2 mln bbl. Distillate stocks rose 900,000 bbl to 117.9 mln bbl, against expectations of a decline of 600,000 bbl. At 1142 IST, the April contract of West Texas Intermediate crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange was flat at $79.70 per bbl. Refinery utilisation in the US in the week ended Friday rose to 86.8% from 84.9% in the preceding week, according to the report.
Crude oil output in the US, the world’s largest producer, fell by 100,000 bbl per day to 13.1 mln bpd, against the preceding week. US crude oil exports during the week slumped by 1.49 mln bpd to 3.15 mln bpd. Additionally, crude oil imports by the country slipped by 1.73 mln bbl to 5.49 mln bpd in the week ended Friday. However, the four-week average crude oil imports were at 6.44 mln bpd, up 2.9% from the same four-week period last year, the agency said.
US crude oil imports from Brazil rose by 94,000 bpd last week to 272,000 bpd, while imports from Colombia fell the most by 351,000 bpd to nil, according to the data. Imports from Mexico also slumped by 337,000 bpd to 303,000 bpd. Inventory of crude oil in Cushing, Oklahoma, a key delivery point for West Texas Intermediate crude, fell by 200,000 bbl to 31.5 mln bbl last week, the data showed.
Cushing is the designated delivery point for NYMEX crude oil futures contracts. Market participants closely monitor stockpiles in Cushing, as it has a storage capacity of about 90 mln bbl. Strategic petroleum reserves in the US rose by 600,000 bbl to 361.6 mln bbl during the week.