Oil stocks rose by 718,000 barrels in the week ending December 23 (Getty)
She said US Energy Information AdministrationToday, Thursday, in US crude oil and distillate inventories rose, while gasoline stocks fell.
Oil inventories rose by 718 thousand barrels in the week ending December 23 to 419 million barrels, while Analysts expected In a Archyde.com poll, it decreased by 1.5 million barrels.
Crude inventories at the delivery center in Cushing, Oklahoma, fell by 195,000 barrels over the past week, according to the Energy Information Administration.
The administration reported that crude refinery operations rose by 173 thousand barrels per day in the past week. Refinery operating rates increased by 1.15%.
She added that US gasoline stocks fell by 3.1 million barrels last week to 223 million barrels, compared to analysts’ expectations in a Archyde.com poll, for an increase of 500 thousand barrels.
According to the administration’s data, distillate stocks, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 300,000 barrels in the same week to 120.2 million barrels, compared to expectations for a decrease of two million barrels.
The administration said net US imports of crude increased by 1.33 million barrels per day.
In recent months, the United States has released 180 million barrels from its strategic stockpile, in an effort to fill market shortages and rein in prices, which had reached all-time highs in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
And with the gradual sale of those stocks, the US stock of them reached its lowest levels since 1984, which raised the concerns of OPEC and OPEC.its allies regarding energy security, and prompting it to take a decision to cut production.
When withdrawing from inventories, the US administration said that it would rebuild stocks when the barrel price fell to less than eighty dollars a barrel, which it has already started as of this month.
Oil futures fell more than two dollars, coinciding with the announcement of an increase in oil stocks compared to expectations, but they received some support from The decision of the Russian president Vladimir Putin banned the export of crude oil and oil products from February 1, for a period of five months, to countries that adhere to the Western price ceiling.
The contracts trimmed losses as the dollar fell, as investors worried at the end of the year, as initial optimism about the reopening of the economy in China faded.
(Archyde.com, The New Arab)