US crude stock draw bigger than expected

Front-month ICE Brent crude futures traded up by $0.15/bbl in the first 30 minutes after official weekly figures from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) were released today.

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

Commercial US crude inventories dropped by 4.26 million bbls on the week, to 440.77 million bbls on 8 December, according to the EIA.

The weekly stock draw was bigger than the American Petroleum Institute's (API) projection of a 2.35 million-bbl draw a day earlier.

Official EIA data also showed that US refinery utilisation dropped by a marginal 0.3 percentage points to 90.2% last week.

Gasoline stocks gained by 409,000 bbls over the week, to a nine-week high of 224 million bbls, as demand weakened.

Distillate stocks, which include diesel and gasoil, rose by 1.49 million bbls to 114 million bbls – the highest in eight weeks.

By Debarati Bhattacharjee

Please get in touch with comments or additional info to news@engine.online