U.S. oil inventories fall by 1.4 million barrels

MOSCOW, 5 Oct – PRIME. U.S. commercial oil inventories (excluding the strategic reserve) fell 1.4 million barrels, or 0.3%, to 429.2 million barrels in the week ended Sept. 30, the Energy Information Administration’s weekly review said.

Analysts polled by the DailyFX portal, on the other hand, expected an increase in inventories by 2 million barrels.

In addition, the country’s strategic oil reserve fell by 6.2 million barrels, or 1.5%, to 416.4 million barrels, the ministry adds. The index is at its lowest level since July 1984.

Oil reserves at the country’s largest terminal in Cushing during the reporting period rose to 26 million from 25.7 million barrels.

Inventories of gasoline in the US fell by 4.7 million barrels to 207.5 million barrels from last week’s level of 212.2 million. Analysts had expected a decline of only 1.3 million barrels. Distillate inventories decreased by 3.4 million barrels (by 3%) and amounted to 110.9 million barrels. A decline of only 1.4 million barrels was forecast.

MINING

US oil production for the week ended September 30 remained at the previous week’s level of 12 million barrels per day, the report said. On average, over the past four weeks, US oil production amounted to 12.05 million barrels per day.

The department reports exact data on production in a monthly report with a difference of two months. According to the final data, US oil production in June amounted to 11.82 million barrels per day, and in July – 11.71 million barrels; for the whole of last year – an average of 11.254 million barrels per day.

On September 7, the US Department of Energy lowered the forecast for average oil production in the country for the current year by 70,000 barrels per day, to 11.79 million, and for the next year, also by 70,000 barrels, to 12.63 million barrels per day.