U.S. crude and distillate inventories fell in the week ending Dec. 13 as exports surged, while gasoline stockpiles rose, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Dec. 18.
Crude inventories fell by 934,000 bbl to 421 MMbbl in the week, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.6-MMbbl-draw.
U.S. crude exports rose by 1.8 MMbbl/d last week to 4.89 MMbbl/d. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery hub rose by 108,000 bbl to 23 MMbbl, the EIA said.
"The big number and the big reason why we had a draw is from the export number," said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho.
He pointed to a widening of the spread between Brent and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures at the end of November to nearly $4.50/bbl, which encouraged more flows across the Atlantic Ocean to higher priced markets. That spread WTCLc1-LCOc1 was trading around $3.40/bbl on Dec. 18.
"I would assume that's when a lot of those deals were booked for exports," Yawger added.
Oil futures extended gains on Dec. 18 following the report. Global Brent futures were up $0.77 to $73.96/bbl at 10:52 a.m. EST (1552 GMT), while WTI futures were up $1.05/bbl to $71.13/bbl.
Refinery crude runs fell by 48,000 bbl/d in the week, and utilization rates fell by 0.6 percentage points to 91.8%, the EIA said. The four-week average for utilization was 92%, up from 90.7% over the same period a year ago.
"Refiners are running pretty hard for this time of year," said Phil Flynn, a senior analyst for Price Futures Group. "It's probably reflective of the fact that demand that is pretty darn good."
Total product supplied, a proxy for demand, was at 20.8 MMbbl/d, up 662,000 bbl/d from the prior week.
U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 2.3 MMbbl in the week to 222 MMbbl, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 2.1-MMbbl build.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 3.2 MMbbl in the week to 118.2 MMbbl, versus expectations for a 700,000-bbl-rise, the EIA data showed.
Distillate demand rose to the highest-level last week since March 2022.
Both heating oil futures and gasoline futures were up following the report.
Net U.S. crude imports fell by 1.13 MMbbl, EIA said.
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