DTN Oil Update

Maria Eugenia Garcia
DTN Energy Editor

HOUSTON (DTN) -- Crude oil benchmarks WTI and Brent settled higher on Wednesday after the Energy Information Administration reported a higher-than-expected draw in U.S. commercial crude inventories this morning for the week ended Aug. 15. Gasoline stocks fell while distillates rose week-on-week, the same data showed.

The oil futures market shifted its attention to U.S. inventory data after recent talks to reach a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire and OPEC's decision to accelerate its crude oil output hike had set a bearish tone in previous days.

The front-month NYMEX WTI futures contract advanced $0.86 to $63.21 bbl, and the October ICE Brent futures contract increased by $1.25 to $67 bbl. The September RBOB futures contract climbed by $0.0431 to $2.1321 gallon, while the ULSD futures contract for September delivery rose by $0.0296 to $2.2807 gallon.

In contrast, the U.S. dollar weakened by 0.054 points to 98.605 against a basket of foreign currencies.

For the second consecutive week, EIA reported a draw on U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, falling by 6.0 million bbl to 420.7 million bbl, last week. The decline was 4.0 million bbl down from the same period last year. Last week's draw followed a 3.0 million bbl build in the week ending Aug. 8.

This figure was higher than the 2.4 million bbl draw the American Petroleum Institute reported on Tuesday, Aug. 19.

Gasoline inventories dropped by 2.7 million bbl to 223.6 million bbl in the week ending Aug. 15, according to EIA. In contrast, API reported a 1 million build for the same product in the profiled week.

Distillate fuel inventories rose by 2.3 million bbl to 116.0 million bbl last week, down by 12.4 million bbl compared to the same time in the prior year. The figure was above the 500,000 bbl build reported by API.

Refinery utilization climbed week-on-week to 96.6% in the week of Aug. 15 from 95.4% rates last week, EIA data showed.