The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported on Wednesday
that crude inventories jumped by 3.454 million barrels in the week ended May 9, following a decline
of 2.032 million barrels in the previous week. This marked the first weekly gain in the U.S. crude
inventories in three weeks. Economists had forecast
a fall of 1.000 million barrels.
At the same
time, gasoline stocks dropped by 1.022 million barrels. Analysts had predicted a draw
of 0.600 million barrels. The previous week witnessed an increase of 0.188 million
barrels.
Elsewhere,
distillate stocks plunged by 3.155 million barrels, the most since early April. Analysts
had expected a build of 0.100 million barrels. The previous week saw a decrease
of 1.107 million barrels.
Meanwhile, oil
production in the U.S. rose by 20,000 barrels per day to 13.387 million barrels
per day.
U.S. crude oil
imports averaged 5.8 million barrels per day last week,
logging a drop of 214,000 barrels per day from the week before.