Crude oil prices moved lower today after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that crude oil inventories had added 9.4 million barrels in the week to April 8.
At 421.8 million barrels, oil inventories are about 13 percent below the five-year average for this time of the year.
Last week’s build compared with an inventory build of 2.4 million barrels for the previous week. It also compares with an estimated inventory increase of as much as 7.757 million barrels for last week, as reported by the American Petroleum Institute.
The unexpected inventory build, however, failed to move prices much lower, with both Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate remaining above $100 per barrel.
In gasoline, the EIA reported an inventory draw of 3.6 million barrels for last week, which compared with a draw of 2 million barrels estimated for the previous week.
Gasoline production averaged 9.5 million barrels daily in the week to April 8, which compared with 9.1 million barrels daily over the previous week.
In middle distillates, which are a cause for concern in the transport sector due to especially tight supply, the EIA estimated an inventory decline of 2.9 million barrels for the week to April 8.
Middle distillate production averaged 4.7 million bpd last week, which compared with 5 million barrels daily a week earlier.
Earlier this week, oil prices recouped some of their recent losses as the Untied States and the International Energy Agency geared up to start releasing a total 240 million barrels from reserves to tame oil prices over the next six months.
However, OPEC countered the change in market sentiment when it rejected EU calls for more production to aid price-taming efforts. With the EU currently discussing a potential oil embargo on Russia, OPEC’s head, Mohammed Barkindo said this could lead to the loss of more than 7 million barrels of oil daily and that it would be “nearly impossible” to replace all these barrels.
Oil prices jumped by over $4 percent soon after reports of the meeting began pouring in. Today, at the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $106.30 per barrel, with West Texas Intermediate at $102 per barrel.
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By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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