inventories in the United States decreased by 9 million barrels during the week ending February 13, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Thursday. The decrease brings commercial stockpiles to 419.8 million barrels according to government data, which is 5% below the five-year average for this time of year.
The EIA’s data release follows API’s figures that were released a day earlier, which reported that crude oil inventories fell by 609,000 barrels in the period.
Crude prices were trading up on Thursday morning. At 10:00 a.m. in New York, was trading at $71.78 per barrel—up $1.40 (+1.99%) on the day. This is up nearly $2 per barrel week over week. WTI was also trading up, by $1.37 per barrel (+2.10%) in morning trade at $66.56 per barrel.
For total motor gasoline, the EIA reported that inventories had decreased by 3.2 million barrels after gaining 1.2 million barrels in the week prior. The most recent figures showed average daily gasoline production increased to 9.4 million barrels. For middle distillates, inventories decreased by 4.6 million barrels with production increasing by 28,000 barrels daily to an average of 4.9 million barrels daily.
Total products supplied—a proxy for U.S. oil demand—rose to 21.2 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, up 4.1% compared to the same period last year. Gasoline demand averaged 8.5 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, while the distillate four-week average supplied averaged 4.4 million barrels—up 2.5% percent year over year.
