DTN Oil

Karim Bastati
DTN Analyst

VIENNA (DTN) -- West Texas Intermediate futures closest to expiration on the New York Mercantile Exchange and Brent crude on the Intercontinental Exchange pared losses Wednesday morning following the release of the Energy Information Administration's (EIA) Weekly Petroleum Status report.

The EIA reported commercial crude oil inventories in the U.S. fell 1.4 million barrels (bbl) in the week ending May 3, compared to the 509,000 bbl build reported by the American Petroleum Institute Tuesday. Both gasoline and distillate fuel inventories grew as refining activity picked up ahead of the summer driving season, adding 900,000 bbls and 600,000 bbls last week, respectively.

Crude oil throughput averaged 15.95mn barrels per day (bpd) in the week ending May 3, up 300,000 bpd from the last week of April, pushing the four-week average to 150,000 bpd above year-ago levels.

Diesel demand, in contrast, continued to trail 2023 levels. The EIA reported 3.49 million bpd of distillate fuel oil supplied, down 190,000 bpd on the week. The demand proxy averaged just under 3.6 million bpd over the past four weeks, 250,000 bpd less than in the same period last year.

Near 10:05 a.m. CDT, WTI futures for June delivery were up $0.34 bbl to trade near $78.72 bbl, and Brent for July delivery gained $0.22 bbl to $83.38 bbl. Front-month ULSD was flat on the day, while RBOB for June delivery was down $0.0235 gal near $2.5199.

Karim Bastati can be reached at karim.bastati@dtn.com