Photo caption: EIA logo
Crude oil inventories in the United States increased by 7.7 million barrels during the week ending July 25, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The build brings commercial stockpiles to 426.7 million barrels according to government data, which is still 6% below the five-year average for this time of year.
The EIA’s data release follows API’s figures that were released a day earlier, which suggested that crude oil inventories grew by 1.539 million barrels.
Crude prices were trading slightly up ahead of the EIA data release. At 9:42 a.m. in New York, Brent was trading at $72.84 per barrel—up $0.33 (+0.46%) on the day. WTI was also trading up $0.33 per barrel (+0.48%) at that time.
For total motor gasoline, the EIA reported a decrease of 2.7 million barrels, with daily production increasing to 10 million barrels. For middle distillates, inventories rose by 3.6 million barrels, with production increasing to 5.2 million barrels daily. Distillate inventories are still 16% below the five-year average for this time of year.
Total products supplied over the last four weeks came in at 20.8 million barrels per day, up 1.5% compared to the same period last year. Gasoline demand averaged 8.9 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, while the distillate four-week average supplied was 3.5 million barrels—down 4.1 percent year over year.
=== Oilprice.com ===
