The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced on Wednesday that
crude inventories jumped by 7.070 million barrels in the week ended June 27, following a
rise of 3.845 million barrels in the previous week. This represented the strongest weekly
advance in the U.S. crude inventories since late January. Economists had predicted a draw of 2.000 million
barrels.
At the same
time, gasoline stocks declined by 2.658 million barrels, the most since late April. Analysts had forecast a decrease of
1.700 million barrels. The previous week witnessed a surge of 4.188 million
barrels.
Elsewhere,
distillate stocks fell by 0.825 million barrels, recording the third successive
weekly decrease.
Analysts had foreseen a slip of 0.300
million barrels. The previous week saw a drop of 1.710 million barrels.
Meanwhile, oil
production in the U.S. declined 48,000 barrels per day to 13.385million barrels
per day.
U.S. crude oil
imports averaged 6.0 million barrels per day last week,
logging a fall of 906,000 barrels per day from the week before.