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Crude oil prices retreated yesterday after the Energy Information Administration reported a build in U.S. crude inventories
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Gasoline and distillate stocks saw a small decline
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Crude oil imports came in slightly higher this week
Crude oil prices retreated yesterday after the Energy Information Administration reported an inventory build of 4.3 million barrels for the week to October 22.
This compared with a modest draw of 400,000 barrels for the previous week and analyst expectations for a build of 1.65 million barrels.
Gasoline stocks were down by 2 million barrels, the EIA also said, with production slightly up on the previous week.
This compared with an inventory draw of 5.4 million barrels for the previous week, with production averaging 10.1 million bpd.
In middle distillates, the agency estimated an inventory decline of 400,000 barrels for the week to October 22. Production of middle distillates averaged 4.6 million bpd.
This compared with a middle distillate inventory decline of 3.9 million barrels a week earlier, and production of 4.4 million bpd.
Refinery inputs averaged 15 million bpd last week, the EIA also said, an increase of 58,000 bpd on a week earlier.
Imports of crude averaged 6.3 million bpd, compared with 5.8 million bpd a week earlier.
Oil prices hit a seven-year high on Tuesday, driven up by continued robust demand in the United States and the tight global supply situation, which OPEC+ has signaled it will not alleviate for now with additional supply. The situation is expected to remain tense.
"The energy crunch is still nowhere close to subsiding, so we expect prevailing strength in oil prices in November and December as supply lags demand and as OPEC+ stays on the sidelines," Reuters quoted Louise Dickson from Rystad Energy as saying earlier this week.
One other analyst from OANDA said it was possible that Brent crude would reach $90 per barrel by the end of the year. Earlier, Goldman Sachs, which had forecast Brent at $90, said the benchmark could even top that by the end of the year.
At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $85.56 a barrel, with West Texas Intermediate at $83.87 per barrel, both down slightly from the end of trading on Tuesday.