Por Paolo Trevisani
U.S. crude-oil inventories fell last week despite forecasts of an increase, while refining capacity utilization rose more than expected, according to data released Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration.
Benchmark U.S. oil prices were declining before the bullish report was released and remained so afterward. The Nymex front-month crude contract for December delivery was recently down 1.5% at $79.51 a barrel.
Crude-oil stockpiles declined by 2.1 million barrels to 433 million barrels, and are now about 7% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted crude stockpiles would rise by 500,000 barrels from the prior week.
Oil stored at Cushing, the delivery point for U.S. stocks, rose by 216,000 barrels from the previous week, to 26.6 million barrels, the EIA said in its weekly report.
U.S. crude-oil production decreased to 11.4 million from 11.5 million barrels a day, according to EIA.
Gasoline stockpiles declined by 707,000 barrels to 212 million barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations for inventories to decrease by 600,000 barrels from the previous week.
Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, fell by 824,000 barrels to 123.7 million barrels, and are now about 5% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts were forecasting a 1.2 million barrel decline from the previous week.
The refining capacity utilization rate rose by 1.2 percentage points from the previous week to 87.9%, compared with analysts’ forecasts for a 0.7 percentage point increase.
U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Nov. 12:
Crude Gasoline Distillates Refinery Use EIA data: -2.1 -0.7 -0.8 +1.2 Forecast: +0.5 -0.6 -1.2 +0.7
Nota: Las cifras están en millones de barriles, excluyendo los usos de refinería, que son puntos porcentuales.
Escriba a Paolo Trevisani a [email protected]
Correcciones y ampliaciones
Este elemento se corrigió a las 11:11 a.m. ET. Una versión anterior mal escrita el 12 de noviembre el 5 de noviembre.
