The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) informed on Wednesday
that crude inventories dropped by 1.844 million barrels in the week ended November 22,
following a rise of 0.545 million barrels in the previous week. This
represented the first weekly decrease in the U.S. crude inventories in four weeks. Economists
had predicted a draw of 1.100 million barrels.
At the same
time, gasoline stocks surged by 3.314 million barrels, the most since the week ended July 12
(+3.33 million barrels). Analysts had foreseen an
increase of 0.200 million barrels. The previous week saw a climb of 2.054 million
barrels.
Elsewhere,
distillate stocks advanced by 0.416 million barrels, recording the first build in three
weeks. Analysts
had forecast a gain of 0.200 million barrels. The previous week witnessed a decrease
of 0.114 million barrels.
Meanwhile, oil
production in the U.S. jumped by 292,000 barrels a day to 13.493 million
barrels per day. This represented the highest
output since the week ended November 1 (13.500 million).
U.S. crude oil
imports averaged 6.1 million barrels per day last week,
logging a decline of 1.6 million barrels per day from the week before.