U.S. crude oil stockpiles edged lower last week but gasoline inventories posted a larger-than-expected build on weakened demand, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.

Crude inventories fell by 446,000 barrels in the week to July 15 to 426.6 million barrels, compared with expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.4 million-barrel rise.

Demand figures rebounded from the previous week’s sharp fall, and product supplied rose to 21 million barrels per day. However, gasoline demand continued to sag, and supply of that product over the last four weeks was 8.7 million bpd, or about 7.6% lower than the same time a year ago.

You don’t really don’t want to be going backwards on gasoline in the middle of the summer, said Robert Yawger, executive director of energy futures at Mizuho.

U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 3.5 million barrels in the week to 228.4 million barrels, compared with expectations for a 71,000-barrel rise.

The demand destruction is only still two weeks but sufficient to say its there. That’s the big takeaway, said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York.
Source: Reuters