By Barani Krishnan
Investing.com -- U.S. crude oil inventories had their highest weekly build since April, the Energy Information Administration said in its Weekly Petroleum Status Report that indicated weakening demand for fuels with the winding down of the peak summer travel period.
Crude oil inventories rose by 8.844 million last week, the highest for a week since the week ended April 8, when there was a build of 9.382 million. Industry analysts tracked by Investing.com had expected a crude drawdown of 250,000 barrels instead for last week.
Gasoline inventories climbed by a modest 333,000 barrels against expectations for a draw of 1.667 million barrels.
Distillate stocks rose by 95,000 barrels, less than the rise of 530,000 that had been expected.
The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, meanwhile, saw an outflow of 7.5 million barrels last week that brought the stockpile there to 442.5 million, the lowest since November 1984. The Biden administration has been drawing down the SPR since November last year to make up the shortfall in crude supply on the domestic market for fuels.
Exports of U.S. crude, another important component of the weekly data, slowed to 3.433 million barrels per day (bpd) last week from the prior week’s 3.967 million bpd.