(New York) Commercial crude oil inventories have fallen sharply again in the United States, according to figures released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), despite a drop in refinery activity.
These reserves fell by 3.7 million barrels during the week ending July 19, more than the 2.8 million expected by analysts, according to a consensus established by the Bloomberg agency.
This is the fourth consecutive contraction in US stocks, which have lost more than 24 million barrels since the end of June.
This new decline is partly linked to a slight drop in imports (-2.3% over one week) and a moderate increase in exports (+5.6%).
Another element of explanation is a statistical adjustment which reduced the total volumes arriving on the American market by 3.7 million barrels over the week.
This adjustment is made to correct approximations observed for previous periods and therefore does not reflect market activity during the week in question.
The decline in inventories contrasts with the slowdown in American refineries, which used only 91.6% of their capacity last week, compared with 93.7% in the previous period, the lowest in two months.
This slowdown in refining is out of step with a surge (+8.2%) in deliveries of refined products to the American market, considered an implicit indicator of demand.
Gasoline volumes shipped jumped 7.6% to their highest level in eight months.
Kerosene did even better (+22), a sign of strong demand in air transport.
Gasoline inventories fell by 5.6 million barrels, while analysts had expected them to fall by only 1 million.
On the supply side, production remained unchanged at 13.3 million barrels per day, a historic record.
The EIA’s release did not really cause prices to react. At around 11:00 a.m. (Eastern time), a barrel of US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for September delivery was up 0.71%, at $77.51.