Crude oil inventories in the United States increased by 6.9 million barrels during the week ending March 20, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The increase brings commercial stockpiles to 456.2 million barrels according to government data, which is 0.1% above the five-year average for this time of year.
The EIA’s data release follows API’s figures that were released a day earlier, which reported that crude oil inventories saw a build of 2.3 million barrels in the period.
Crude prices were down in early trade on Wednesday morning despite the ongoing stagnation of tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. At 10:03 a.m. in New York, was trading at $100.20 per barrel—down $4.31 (-4.15%) on the day, and down $9 per barrel from this time last week. was also trading down on the day, by $3.72 per barrel (-4.03%) in morning trade at $88.63 per barrel—down significantly week over week.
For total motor gasoline, the EIA reported that inventories had decreased by 2.6 million barrels after dipping by 5.4 million barrels in the week prior. The most recent figures showed average daily gasoline production increased to 9.7 million barrels. For middle distillates, inventories increased by 3.0 million barrels with production increasing by 158,000 barrels daily to an average of 5.0 million barrels daily.
Total products supplied—a proxy for U.S. oil demand—averaged 20.7 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, up 2.4% compared to the same period last year. Gasoline demand averaged 8.8 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, while the distillate four-week average supplied averaged 3.9 million barrels—up 1.3% percent year over year.
