Brent drops despite US crude stock draw

Front-month ICE Brent crude futures dropped by around $0.43/bbl in the first 30 minutes after official weekly US crude stock figures were released today, and despite a crude stock decline.

PHOTO: Oil refinery complex with big American flag displayed, and fumes coming out from the chimney. Getty Images

Commercial US crude inventories dropped by 4.63 million bbls on the week, to 445.03 million bbls on 1 December, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The weekly stock drop ran counter to the American Petroleum Institute's (API) projection of a 594,000 bbls build a day earlier.

Official EIA data also showed that US refinery utilisation increased by 0.7 percentage points to 90.5% last week – the highest in 11 weeks.

Gasoline stocks gained by 5.42 million bbls over the week, to an eight-week high of 224 million bbls, signalling weaker demand.

Distillate stocks, which include diesel and gasoil, rose by 1.27 million bbls to 112 million bbls – also the highest in six weeks.

By Debarati Bhattacharjee

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