US crude oil stocks up last week, both at federal level and in Cushing

Investing.com - US crude oil stocks rose above the consensus of Wall Street analysts, with an unexpected rise at the federal level and at the storage hub tied to the delivery of contracts traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a government report showed Wednesday.

The build in crude inventories for the week ended Oct. 20 came after a drop in exports, the Weekly Petroleum Status Report of the Energy Information Administration, or EIA, showed.

The US crude inventory balance rose by 1.372 million barrels during the week ended October 20, according to the EIA, versus analysts' consensus for a drop of 0.45M barrels. The build contrasted with the 4.491 million draw in the prior week to October 13, which was helped by a spike in exports.  Last week, crude oil exports fell to 4.833M barrels per day from a prior 5.301M.

Aside from the build in crude stockpiles at the federal level, there was also a rise of 0.213M barrels specifically at the Cushing, Oklahoma storage hub which serves as delivery point for US West Texas Intermediate crude futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Cushing storage levels have dropped drastically this year, prompting concerns they might reach such critical lows to complicate operations at the storage hub. In the prior week, the storage hub saw a net outflow of 1.005M barrels.

Higher stockpiles were noted in gasoline, the premier US fuel product, while distillates — a raw material for diesel and heating fuel — saw draws. 

On the gasoline inventory front, there was a build of 0.156M barrels versus the prior draw of 2.371M and analysts’ consensus for a decline of 1.266M. Automotive fuel gasoline is the No. 1 U.S. fuel product.

With distillate stockpiles, there was a drop of 1.686M barrels on top of the prior week’s deficit of 3.185M and analysts’ consensus for a drop of 1.75M. Distillates are refined into heating oil, diesel for trucks, buses, trains and ships and fuel for jets.