The US Energy Information Agency (EIA) announced that commercial oil reserves in the United States increased by 9.4 million barrels; however, gasoline storage suffered a sharp decrease equivalent to 3.6 million barrels, while distillate products reached 2.9 million.
According to the information, US crude oil reserves “amount to 421.8 million barrels.” The increase of 9.4 million barrels is much more important than that projected by experts, who estimated an increase of 1 million barrels.
The EIA highlighted that these figures “are 13 % lower than the average of the last five years for the same period” and the growth of US commercial crude oil reserves is a consequence of the “fall in exports, a decrease in activity in refineries and somewhat weaker demand.”
Strategic reserves decrease
The increase in commercial crude oil reserves in the United States “must be relativized”. It is important to analyze the situation because it affects other variables in the country such as strategic reserves, which registered a “fall of almost 4 million to 560.7 million barrels.”
As will be remembered, the President of the United States Joe Biden decided to use the strategic reserves as a measure to try to contain the price of gasoline, which has caused a decrease equivalent to “about 60 million barrels in six months”.
Once the EIA report was published, “a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in June gained 1.75 % to 106.47 dollars, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) gained 1.41 % to 102.02 %”.
M. Rodríguez
Source: bancaynegocios.com
