By Kim Khan
Investing.com - Stockpiles of U.S. crude rose sharply again, the Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday, as oil prices continued to see huge swings.
WTI futures spiked about 25%, about where they were before the report came out.
Oil inventories climbed by 15 million barrels for the week ended April 17, the EIA said. That compared with expectations for a build of about 15.2 million barrels, according to forecasts compiled by Investing.com.
“We have built up roughly 65 million barrels over four weeks, a build rate averaging 16.25 million a week,” Investing.com analyst Barani Krishnan said. “While that’s a ghastly number, it’s not totally surprising given that refinery run rates are at multiyear low to capacity at under 68%. But it also makes you wonder why we’re still averaging 5 million barrels a week in crude imports. Where is all that crude going to go?”
The EIA also said that inventories at the Cushing hub rose by another 4.8 million barrels.
“The official capacity for Cushing is cited as 90 million barrels,” Krishnan said. “This EIA report tells you there are just shy of 60 million barrels there. But that’s no comfort because those who know how it Cushing works say you can’t fill to the brim, so the real capacity is probably closer to 85 million. You also have a report from Reuters that all the space in Cushing has already been leased out.”
Gasoline inventories rose by about 1 million barrels, versus forecasts for a rise of about 3.6 million barrels. Distillate stockpiles showed a build of 7.9 million barrels, compared with expectations for a build of about 2.75 million barrels.
Crude output stood at 12.2 million barrels per day for last week, down just 100,000 barrels from the previous week.
“Ask any driller in the Bakken and Permian and he’ll scoff at that number. But it is what it is,” Krishnan added. “The other bright spot in this report is the gasoline build, which came in at a third of expectations, though that was offset by the distillate build that came nearly three times higher.