According to information released on Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), oil stocks in the United States increased last week, a change attributed to a rise in imports.
During the week ending October 18, commercial crude oil reserves in the U.S. surged by 5.5 million barrels, significantly exceeding analysts’ expectations of a 1 million barrel increase, based on Bloomberg’s consensus.
This uptick is primarily driven by a 16.3% rise in imports compared to the previous week, coupled with a slight decrease in exports of 0.27%.
The surge in stockpiles is also connected to a statistical adjustment, as the EIA revises data from prior periods weekly. In this case, nearly 5.2 million barrels were added to the volumes that entered the U.S. market as part of this statistical correction, unrelated to the activity of the reported week.
Refineries operated at 89.5% of their capacity, producing an average of 16.1 million barrels per day, which marks a record level.
Following the release of the report, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil for December delivery experienced a decline of 1.86%, settling at $70.75 on its first trading day.
