EIA DATA: US commercial crude stocks rise, exports down

Quantum Commodity Intelligence – US crude oil stocks eased slightly last week as a small SPR release outweighed a build in commercial stocks that had come against expectations of most analysts, while exports dropped notably over the week.

Data for the week to 7 April showed a move in commercial crude that was opposite to where average analyst estimates had put it, coming in up 600,000 barrels versus an average guess at a 580,000-barrel draw.

That came as commercial crude stocks were marked 0.1% higher on the week at 470.5 million barrels. The SPR saw a slight drop, with another 1.6 million barrels leaving government sites to a fresh 40-year low.

Those moves netted off to a 1-million-barrel drop in total stocks, slipping to a nine-week low of 840 million barrels.

Trade data showed net crude oil imports continuing to recover from lows seen last month, bouncing another 82% on the week to 3.5 million bpd.

But it was a drop in export sales that led the way lower, with loaded barrels falling 48% on the week to a three-month low of just 2.7 million bpd.

That was the biggest week-on-week drop on record, although there is often scope for later revisions to EIA figures, while the US also only started to export crude in earnest back in the mid-2010s.

Private crude imports came to 6.2 million bpd, a 13% drop on the week. Separate data showed a 10% drop in arrivals from Canada from the previous week's 15-month high, with the 3.6 million bpd landing in the US. That is still up 4% from the four-week average and just above the average seen this year.

Domestic refiner input was marked at 15.6 million bpd, a touch lower than the week before but still above an average 15.1 million bpd seen this year. It was in line with the same week last year.