EIA: Oil, gasoline, distillates stockpiles all up last week

Crude oil prices were lower Thursday after the US Energy Information Administration released its latest report on US stockpiles, which showed that inventories of crude oil, gasoline and distillates all rose last week.

The EIA said that crude oil stockpiles added 1.8 million barrels in the week ending 6 November, against an expected gain of a million barrels, to 337.7 million barrels total as total demand for oil fell by 4.3 percent and gasoline consumption dropped 1.9 percent.

Gasoline inventories were up by 2.5 million barrels, while distillates added 300,000 barrels to stockpiles during the week as refineries only worked at 79.9 percent of capacity, their lowest rate since September.

December contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude fell $2.09 to $77.19 per barrel in late morning trade after dropping below $77 per barrel earlier on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while at last report December Brent crude had dropped $1.87 to $76.08 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex December gasoline futures were down 6 cents to $1.93 per gallon in midday trade, while January heating oil was also 6 cents lower, to $2.03 per gallon.

The retail price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States was down less than a cent overnight to $2.65 per gallon on average nationally, 44 cents higher than it was last year at this time.

The weekly EIA report was a day late this week due to the Veteran’s Day holiday, observed on Wednesday in the United States.