DTN Oil Update
Oil Futures Climb Despite Crude Inventory Build Last Week
HOUSTON (DTN) -- Oil futures contract prices rose Thursday despite the Energy Information Administration and the American Petroleum Institute reporting a build in U.S. crude stocks for the week ended Feb. 14.
The EIA reported commercial crude oil inventories in the U.S. rose by 4.6 million bbl to 432.5 million bbl last week.
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The EIA data on commercial crude oil inventories were above the 3.3 million bbl build for the same reference week reported by API Wednesday, Feb. 19.
The EIA said that gasoline stocks dropped by 200,000 bbl week-over-week to reach 247.9 million bbl, which was higher than 2.83 million bbl reported by API.
Distillate fuel stocks saw the steepest decline by dropping 2.1 million bbl to 116.6 million bbl last week. API reported that distillate fuel inventory fell by 2.69 million bbl in the same week.
Gasoline supplies were 8.23 million bpd in the week ended Feb. 14, which was 338,000 bpd higher than the previous week. In the opposite direction, distillate fuel oil supplies rose by 679,000 bpd to nearly 4.4 million bpd in the reference week, the EIA said.
Refinery utilization rates slightly fell to 84.9% compared to above the 85% reported the prior week, as some U.S. Gulf Coast refineries are undergoing seasonal planned maintenance.
The front-month NYMEX WTI futures contract rose by $1.00 to $73.25 bbl, and the April ICE Brent futures contract climbed $1.00 to $77.10. March RBOB futures contract rose by $0.0174 to $2.5133 gallon, while the ULSD futures contract for March delivery increased by $0.0573 to $2.5138 gallon.
The U.S. Dollar Index fell by 1% to 106.34 against a basket of foreign currencies.
