Crude Oil Storage Report - June 22

[dan_s]

On Wednesday morning, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its Weekly Petroleum Status Report that crude inventories fell by 0.9 million for the week ending on June 17. At 530.6 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are at historically high levels for this time of year. With the slight decline, the government report defied expectations for a more sizable draw after the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a drawdown of 5.22 million barrels on Tuesday evening. Analysts initially expected an inventory decrease of 1.5 million for the week.

Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 0.6 million barrels, while Distillate fuel inventories rose moderately by 0.2 million barrels for the week.

At the Cushing Oil Hub in Oklahoma, weekly stockpiles fell by 917,000 barrels last week, falling below expectations for a draw of 1.5 million barrels. A session earlier, the API reported a decline of 1.311 million barrels at Cushing, the main delivery point for NYMEX oil. At the same time, data services firm Genscape, Inc. reported a considerable build in inventory levels in the euro zone, pushing stockpiles to their highest level in three years. It comes as storage levels at Cushing, the largest oilfield in the U.S., remain close to full capacity.

For the week, production fell by 39,000 barrels per day to 8.677 million bpd, hovering near lows from September, 2014. As U.S. shale producers have been forced offline due to persistently low prices, weekly output in the U.S. has moved lower in 21 of the last 22 weeks. By comparison, domestic production peaked at 9.604 million bpd this week last year, its highest level in four decades.