U.S. Crude Inventories Grow But Gasoline, Distillates Fall

Crude oil inventories in the United States rose this week by 4.09 million barrels for the week ending April 12, according to The American Petroleum Institute (API). Crude productions, including gasoline and diesel, however, were draws.

This comes after the API reported a 3.034 million barrel build in crude inventories in the week prior.

On Tuesday, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) rose by another 0.7 million barrels as of April 12. Inventories are now at 364.9 million barrels—the highest point since last April.

Oil prices were trading down ahead of the API data release on Tuesday, despite market fears surrounding Israel’s looming response to Iranian attacks.  

At 4:13 pm ET, Brent crude was trading down 0.18% on the day at $89.94, up $0.40 per barrel from this time last week. The U.S. benchmark WTI was also trading down on the day by 0.15% at $85.28, and relatively flat week over week.  

Gasoline inventories fell this week by 2.51 million barrels, after falling 609,000 barrels in the week prior. As of last week, gasoline inventories were about 3% below the five-year average for this time of year, according to the latest EIA data.

Distillate inventories fell this week by 427,000 barrels, after last week’s 120,000-barrel gain. Distillates were 5% below the five-year average for the week ending April 5, the latest EIA data shows.

Cushing inventories saw a draw this week, falling 169,000 barrels after rising by 124,000 barrels in the previous week.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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