U.S. crude stocks see surprise build; Fuel demand above forecast - EIA

Investing.com -- Stockpiles of U.S. crude rose last week, defying forecasts for a draw, while demand for fuels was well above expectations, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA, showed Wednesday as energy traders bet on greater consumption ahead of the typical summer surge in road, air and seaborne travel.

The U.S. crude inventory balance rose by 2.951 million barrels during the week ended May 5, the EIA said, versus a previous drawdown of 1.280M for the week to April 28. Industry analysts tracked by Investing.com had forecast an inventory slide of 0.917M barrels in the latest week.

The crude build, however, comes with a caveat: The release of 2.9M barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve without which the inventory balance might have been virtually unchanged from the previous week. Crude releases from the U.S. reserve have been a challenge to oil bulls as the Biden administration sought to continuously moderate market optimism to prevent both oil and pump prices of fuel from rising too much to add to already high inflation.

On the gasoline inventory front, the EIA reported a draw of 3.168M for the week ended May 5, versus forecasts for a drop of 1.233M barrels. In the previous week to April 28, there was a build of 1.743M barrels. Automotive fuel gasoline is the No. 1 U.S. fuel product.

With distillate stockpiles, there was a drawdown of 4.17M barrels versus expectations for a drop of just 0.808M barrels. In the prior week to April 28, distillates saw a deficit of 1.191M. Distillates, which are refined into heating oil, diesel for trucks, buses, trains and ships and fuel for jets, have been the strongest component of the U.S. petroleum complex in terms of demand.