(New York) Crude oil inventories contracted again last week in the United States, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), thanks to the acceleration of refinery activity in the United States.
The decline reached 3.4 million barrels in net during the week ending July 5, while analysts on average were expecting an increase of one million barrels, according to a consensus established by the Bloomberg agency.
This reduction is all the more remarkable since, during the same week, American crude production increased to 13.3 million barrels per day (compared to 13.2 previously), a historic record already recorded at the start of the year.
The decline in commercial stocks also comes as exports fell by 9% over a week, while imports increased by 3%.
But these elements were more than offset by the ramp-up of American refineries, whose capacity was used at 95.4%, compared to only 93.5% during the previous week.
The pace of American refineries has not been this sustained at this time of year for six years.
Along with the decline in commercial stocks, strategic reserves (SPR) increased by 500,000 barrels.
After having tapped these SPRs to ease the price of black gold, the American government is seeking to gradually rebuild them. Since July 2023, it has thus bought back more than 26 million barrels.
In terms of demand, refined products delivered to the US market fell slightly (-1.6%), but gasoline volumes remained well above the symbolic threshold of nine million barrels per day (9.4).
Only distilled products (-7%), a category which includes diesel, and refined products intended for industry (-6%) marked time.
For Matt Smith, an analyst at Kpler, the drop in commercial crude oil stocks and gasoline reserves (-2 million barrels) should be seen as the effect of the long July 4 weekend, a national holiday in the United States that traditionally marks a high point for road travel.
The EIA’s data helped oil prices gain momentum after stagnating in early trading. At around 11:00 a.m. ET, US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for August delivery was up 0.71% at $81.99 a barrel.