West Texas Intermediate topped $82 per barrel earlier this week and Brent crude jumped above $85 per barrel as demand forecasts suggested a sizeable supply deficit for the second half of the year. Production remains constrained by OPEC+ cuts and outages As a result, the U.S. Department of Energy just pulled back an offer to buy 6 million barrels of crude for the strategic petroleum reserve. The offer was made in early July, when WTI was trading below $72. At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $83.11 per barrel.
EIA: US crude inventories down by 17 million barrels
After the startling revision in U.S. oil demand in May, the EIA estimated an inventory draw of 17 million barrels for the final week of July, which compared with a modest decline of 700,000 barrels for the previous week. Commercial crude oil inventories in the United States, which are not taking into account those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, slumped by 17 million barrels to 439.8 million barrels in the week ending July 28, falling to its lowest level since January this year, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed in its report on Wednesday. The figure marked a larger-than-expected draw. The country’s inventories now stand 1% below the five-year average for this time of year. US crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.5 million barrels per day for the corresponding timeframe, which is 40,000 barrels per day more than the previous week’s average. Refineries operated at 92.7% of their operable capacity last week, while gasoline production rose, averaging 9.8 million barrels per day. Imports of crude oil in the country averaged 6.7 million barrels per day last week, rising by 301,000 barrels per day. Total commercial petroleum inventories declined by 10.4 million barrels. NN: I bet your glad we took the freeging money and ran yesterday at the highs..