DTN Oil

WASHINGTON (DTN) -- New York Mercantile Exchange oil futures moved mixed in late morning trade Wednesday after the weekly inventory report from U.S. Energy Information Administration released midmorning revealed commercial crude stocks rose for the second consecutive week through June 10th, while demand for motor gasoline and distillate fuels softened and domestic refiners scaled back run rates.

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories rose by 2 million barrels (bbl) from the previous week to 418.7 million bbl, and now stand about 14% below the five-year average. Earlier this week, market analysts called for oil inventories to have decreased by 1.4 million bbl in the reviewed week.

Oil stored at Cushing, Oklahoma tanks, the delivery point for West Texas Intermediate, decreased 826,000 bbl to 22.6 million bbl. Domestic oil production climbed 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 12 million bpd -- the highest production rate since late April 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic triggered an economic contraction and led a large chunk of domestic oil output to be shuttered.

Refinery throughputs averaged 16.3 million bpd during in the reviewed week, which was 67,000 bpd less than the previous week's average. Refineries operated at 93.7% of their operable capacity last week. Gasoline production decreased to 10 million bpd. Distillate fuel production also decreased last week, averaging 4.9 million bpd.

Meanwhile, demand for gasoline decreased 106,000 bpd to 9.093 million bpd after surging to its highest weekly rate this year. Demand for distillate fuels edged lower to 3.619 million bpd, down by 31,000 bpd from the previous week.

Gasoline inventories dropped 710,000 bbl to 217.5 million bbl and are about 10% below the five-year average. Earlier this week, analysts expected inventories to have increased by 100,000 bbl from the previous week. Distillate stocks rose 725,000 bbl to 109.7 million bbl, still some 23% below the five-year average.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 19.8 million bpd, up 2.3% from the same period last year. Over the past four weeks, gasoline supplied to the U.S. market averaged 9 million bpd, down 1.1% from the same period last year. Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.8 million bpd over the past four weeks, down 5.7% from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 22.6% compared with the same four-week period last year.

Near 11:30 a.m. ET, NYMEX WTI July futures fell $0.70 to $118.17 bbl, and international benchmark Brent crude declined $0.20 to $120.91 bbl. NYMEX July RBOB futures traded little changed near $3.9980 gallon, with front-month ULSD futures gaining 14.4 cents to $4.54364 gallon.

Liubov Georges can be reached at liubov.georges@dtn.com