Investing.com - US crude stockpiles possibly rose as much as 1.3 million barrels last week, resulting in another build as well at the storage hub tied to the delivery of oil contracts traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange, petroleum trade group API said Tuesday.
Typically at this time of year, demand for motor fuels is softer in the United States as Americans do less driving with the weather transitioning from fall to winter. But with the refinery industry on seasonal maintenance, larger-than-usual declines in fuel stocks are also common with limited replenishments coming in.fell by 1.347M barrels during the week ended Oct. 27, according to the API. That contrasted with a 2.668M-barrel slump in the prior week to Oct.
Cushing storage levels have dropped drastically this year, prompting concerns they might reach such critical lows to complicate operations at the storage hub. On the fuel side, the petroleum trade group reported a gasoline inventory slide of 0.357M barrels and distillate stock drop of 2.313M barrels. In the prior week, gasoline saw a 4.169-M barrel deficit while distillates experienced a 2.313M drop.