Oil prices rose today after the Energy Information Administration reported that crude inventories in the country had fallen by 1 million barrels during the week to May 20.
At 419.8 million barrels, crude inventories are 14 percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Last week’s inventory change compared to an estimated 3.4 million barrels draw for the previous week.
In gasoline, the EIA reported a drop in inventory of 500,000 barrels during the week to May 20, with an average production of 9.4 million bpd.
In the previous week, gasoline inventories lost 4.8 million barrels and production averaged 9.6 million barrels per day.
In medium distillates, the authority estimated an increase in inventory of 1.8 million barrels. Production averaged 5.1 million bpd.
This compares with an inventory accumulation of 1.2 million barrels and a production rate of 4.9 million bpd a week earlier.
Gasoline prices continued to break records last week, reaching $ 4.598 per gallon on Tuesday, according to the AAA. Diesel prices were lower, however, at $ 5,549 per gallon on Tuesday, down from $ 5,573 per gallon a week ago.
The situation of diesel fuel in the US, and not only there, remains almost critical due to the tightness of available inventory. To allay concerns, the Biden administration announced that it was considering releasing the emergency diesel reserve.
Diesel fuel supply is especially tight on the east coast, where inventories have plummeted since at least 1990, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Crude oil prices also remain high, as the demand / supply situation remains unchanged, although concerns about the recession have served to limit the upside potential of benchmark indices. The de facto leader of OPEC, Saudi Arabia, once again stated that it had no plans to further increase production and the EU continued to discuss an oil embargo on Russia.
Meanwhile, the United States is considering an export ban to try to curb domestic fuel prices, CNBC reported on Tuesday, citing Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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