DTN Oil Update
Oil Futures Climb Despite Crude Stocks Rising Last Week
HOUSTON (DTN) -- Oil futures rose Wednesday, despite the Energy Information Administration and the American Petroleum Institute reporting increasing crude inventories last week.
The EIA reported commercial crude oil inventories in the U.S. rose by 1.4 million bbl to 435.2 million bbl in the week ending March 7. This was below the 4.247 million bbl build reported by API Tuesday, March 11, for the same reference week.
Gasoline stocks saw the steepest fall last week dropping 5.7 million bbl week-over-week to reach 241.1 million bbl, in the week ended March 7. This was above the 4.56 million bbl drop reported by API for the same period.
Distillate fuel stocks fell by 1.6 million bbl to 117.6 million bbl last week, according to EIA, which was larger than the 421,000 bbl draw API reported for the same week.
Refinery utilization rose to 86.5% from 85.95% reported the prior week.
The front-month NYMEX WTI futures contract climbed by $1.33 to $67.58 bbl, and the May ICE Brent futures contract rose by $1.19 to $70.75. April RBOB futures contract increased by $0.0404 to $2.1454 gallon while the ULSD futures contract for March delivery rose by $0.0238 to $2.2206 gallon.
The U.S. Dollar Index also increased by 0.26% to 103.53, against a basket of foreign currencies.
