EIA: Crude, gasoline, distillates inventories all lower last week

Crude oil prices were lower in early afternoon trade in New York after the US Energy Information Administration reported that US inventories of crude oil, gasoline and distillates all dropped last week.

At around 1:30 p.m. in New York, December contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were down 38 cents to $78.76 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while at last report December Brent crude had dropped 6 cents to $78.91 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Prices had been up earlier, in late morning trade.

The EIA said that crude oil stockpiles were down by 900,000 barrels in the week ending 13 November, while gasoline inventories dropped by 1.7 million barrels and distillates in storage were 300,000 barrels lower than the previous week.

All were still above last year’s levels, although gasoline inventories are now just 10.5 million barrels over their levels last year at this time.

Analysts pointed out that the decline in crude oil stockpiles were due to lower imports, which were down 16 percent along the US Gulf Coast due to interruptions caused by Hurricane Ida, and not because of more consumption.

The retail price of a gallon of gasoline in the US reversed its declines to gain less than a cent to $2.632 per gallon overnight as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches in just over a week.

AAA, which reported the gain in retail gasoline prices, also said that it expects 2.1 percent more people in the US to drive at least 50 miles from home over the Thanksgiving weekend as it estimated that 33.2 million people will travel by car over the holiday.

That more people will drive to their holiday destination this year despite gasoline prices that are 56 cents more than they were last year at the same time was taking as an indication by some analysts that consumers are becoming more confident.