WTI futures drop following DoE inventory data

US oil inventories grew last week, as output bounced back after the passage of hurricane Michael, although product stockpiles fell sharply.

According to the Energy Information Administration, the US Department of Energy's statistical arm, crude oil inventories in the States grew by 3.2m barrels over the week ending on 26 October, to reach 426.0m.

That was even as exports increased by 305,000 barrels a day to reach 2.485m b/d, as domestic US production bounced back by 300,000 b/d to 11.2m b/d after hurricane Michael and the rate of releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve increased by 55,000 b/d to 220,000 b/d.

Imports on the other hand declined by 334,000 b/d to 7.344m b/d.

As for product stockpiles, those of gasoline shrank by 3.2m barrels - although they were roughly 6% above their five-year average for that time of the year - while distillate inventories fell by 4.1m barrels.

Distillate stocks were running about 5% beneath their five-year average, which was nevertheless roughly where they were at one year ago, Caroline Bain at Capital Economics pointed out.

Refineries operated at 89.4% of capacity.

Bain added: "There was a tiny increase in crude inputs to refineries, which could be an early sign that refineries are starting to come out of maintenance."

As of 2000 GMT, front month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures were down by 1.675% at $65.09 a barrel on the ICE.