In a significant development, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported on Tuesday a substantial increase in US crude oil stocks, potentially the largest since February, along with a notable build in gasoline inventories for the second consecutive week.
According to the API’s weekly inventory report, the US crude inventory balance surged by approximately 12.94 million barrels during the week ending October 6. This comes on the heels of a 4.21 million-barrel decrease in the preceding week, which concluded on September 29.
Gasoline inventories, one of the primary fuel products in the US, also registered a substantial increase. The API reported a rise of 3.645 million barrels in gasoline stockpiles, building on the previous week’s gain of 3.946 million barrels.
However, inventories of distillates, a feedstock used for diesel and heating fuel production, declined by 3.535 million barrels, following a modest increase of 0.349 million barrels in the previous week.
The API’s data additionally indicated a decrease of 0.547 million barrels in storage levels at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery point for US crude. This decline contrasts with the prior week’s increase of 0.705 million barrels, which marked the first such rise in months at Cushing.
The API’s report serves as a precursor to the official inventory data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), which is scheduled to be released on Thursday.
For the most recent week, analysts are expecting the EIA to report a decrease in crude stockpiles of 0.37 million barrels, in contrast to the 2.224-million barrel reduction reported for the week ending September 29.
Regarding gasoline inventories, the consensus among analysts is a draw of 1.5 million barrels, following the previous week’s substantial increase of 6.481 million barrels. Gasoline is a major fuel product in the United States.
For distillate stockpiles, analysts anticipate a reduction of 1.5 million barrels compared to the prior week’s decrease of 1.269 million barrels. Distillates are processed into heating oil, diesel for various modes of transportation, and aviation fuel.