Crude, Natural Gas Prices Fall on US Inventory Data

For the week ending last Friday, US inventories of crude oil rose 3.9 million barrels compared with the previous week and remain at the upper limit of the five-year average. Natural gas inventories fell by 81 billion cubic feet compared with a week ago, but rose by 297 billion cubic feet compared with last year.

Gasoline inventories fell by 700,000 barrels and distillate inventories rose by 1.2 million barrels. Crude oil imports totaled nearly 9 million barrels/day during the week, and refinery inputs totaled 14.6 million barrels/day with refineries running at 84.2% of capacity.

Crude prices fell following the reports. WTI crude is down about -0.4% at $98.94/barrel and Brent crude is down by the same amount to $107.17. Natural gas prices fell more than -3.5% to $3.01/thousand cubic feet.