US crude stocks up a whopping 13M barrels last week; Gasoline rises 3.9M - API

Investing.com - US crude oil stocks possibly rose by nearly 13 million barrels last week in what could be the highest build since February, petroleum trade group API reported Tuesday.  

A huge build was also seen in gasoline inventories for a second week in a row,  the weekly inventory report from the American Petroleum Institute showed.

The U.S. crude inventory balance rose by 12.94M barrels during the week ended Oct. 6, according to the API, after a decline of 4.21M in the prior week to Sept. 29.

Stockpiles of gasoline — the No. 1 US fuel product — rose by 3.645M, adding to the previous week’s gain of 3.946M, API said.

But inventories of distillates — a feedstock for diesel and heating fuel — fell by 3.535M compared with the prior week’s build of 0.349M.

The API also noted a 0.547M barrel drop in storage levels at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery point for US crude, versus the previous week’s rise of 0.705M. That prior week build was the first in months at Cushing.

The API data serves as a precursor to official inventory data on the same due from the US Energy (NASDAQ:USEG) Information Administration, or EIA, on Thursday.

For last week, analysts tracked by Investing.com expect the EIA to report a crude stockpile drop of 0.37 million barrels, versus the 2.224-million barrel reduction reported during the week to Sept. 29.

On the gasoline inventory front, the consensus is for a draw of 1.5M barrels over the 6.481M-barrel jump in the previous week. Automotive fuel gasoline is the No. 1 U.S. fuel product.

With distillate stockpiles, the expectation is for a drop of 1.5M barrels versus the prior week’s drop of 1.269M. Distillates are refined into heating oil, diesel for trucks, buses, trains and ships and fuel for jets.