Energy
Crude Oil Price Slides as Stockpile Adds 4.8 Million Barrels
Published:
Last Updated:
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its weekly petroleum status report Wednesday morning. U.S. commercial crude inventories increased by 4.8 million barrels last week, maintaining a total U.S. commercial crude inventory of 490.7 million barrels. The commercial crude inventory remains near levels not seen at this time of year in at least the past 80 years.
Tuesday evening, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported that crude inventories rose by 2.3 million barrels in the week ending December 11. For the same period, analysts had estimated a decrease of 1.4 barrels in crude inventories.
Total gasoline inventories increased by 1.7 million barrels last week, according to the EIA, and remained into the upper half of the five-year average range. Total motor gasoline supplied (the agency’s measure of consumption) averaged over 9.2 million barrels a day for the past four weeks, up by 0.7% compared with the same period a year ago.
It appears that the U.S. Congress has reached an agreement on the federal budget for 2016. The 40-year ban on exports of crude oil will be lifted as part of that agreement. The full House and full Senate have to pass the compromise bill, which also extends current tax credits for solar and wind projects. Do not expect refiners to cheer the news.
24/7 Wall St.Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.
Editors' Picks
