Commercial oil reserves in the United States experienced an unusual increase of 1.3 million barrels over the past week, altering market projections. As reported by the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) last Wednesday, this change defies common trends for this winter season.
Contrary to expectations, which anticipated a decrease of around 150,000 barrels for the week ending January 5 – according to data collected by Bloomberg – this increase took industry analysts by surprise.
This news had a significant impact on crude oil prices. Prior to the release of the report, the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in February registered an increase of up to 1.86%. However, following the disclosure, prices started to fall and were close to equilibrium. (-0.01 %) at $72.23 per barrel at 16:15 GMT.
The increase in reserves is mainly attributed to a fall in exports, which fell by 37% in one week. On the other hand, imports also showed a moderation, decreasing by 9 %.
In addition, there was a decrease in the activity of the refineries, with a utilization rate of 92.9%, compared to 93.5% recorded the previous week.
As for petrol reserves, they also experienced an increase, increasing by 8 million barrels. This increase follows a notable increase of 10.9 million barrels recorded a week earlier.
In the context of several winter storms that hit the United States, causing significant temperature drops in various areas, distilled products saw an increase in demand of 29%. Within this category, include fuel for domestic heating and propane gas used in stoves, which experienced an increase of 17%. Meanwhile, production remained stable at 13.2 million barrels per day.
K. Tovar
Source: Descifrado
(Reference image source: Unsplash+)
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