Crude oil prices recovered on Wednesday morning despite word from the Energy Information Administration of an inventory draw of 4.7 million barrels for the week to December 17.
At 423.6 million barrels, crude oil inventories remain 8% below the five-year average—compared to 7% below the five-year average last week.
Last week’s draw adds to last week’s huge draw of 4.6 million barrels from crude oil inventories.
On Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute estimated a crude oil inventory draw of 3.670 million barrels for the week to December 17.
In gasoline, the API reported a build of 3.7 million barrels, with a decline of 849,000 in distillates.
Gasoline inventories increased by 5.5 million barrels in the reporting period according to the EIA, which compared with a draw of 700,000 barrels for the previous week.
Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.9 million bpd, compared with 10.0 million bpd in the previous week.
In middle distillates, the EIA estimated an inventory build of 400,000 barrels for the week to December 17, which compared with a decrease of 2.9 million barrels for the previous week.
Middle distillate production increased last week, averaging 4.9 million barrels per day, which compared with 4.8 million bpd in the prior week.
Oil prices have been pressured by pandemic concerns courtesy of the Omicron variant that has triggered another round of restrictions in certain countries.
At 10:12 a.m. EDT, crude oil prices were trading up on the day, with WTI crude trading at $71.35, up $0.23 (.32%), and Brent crude trading at $74.20, up $0.22 per barrel (0.30%).
Post data release, Brent crude was trading at $74.37 per barrel, with West Texas Intermediate at $71.64 per barrel, both up from the opening.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
