During the week ended July 22, commercial reserves fell by 4.5 million barrels while analysts expected a decline of only 1.5 million.
Commercial crude oil reserves in the United States fell more sharply than expected last week, according to figures released Wednesday by the US Energy Information Agency (EIA).
During the week ended July 22, commercial stocks of black gold fell by 4.5 million barrels while analysts expected a decline of 1.5 million. They amounted to 422.1 million barrels, 6% below the average for the past five years.
Gasoline reserves also fell sharply by 3.3 million barrels once morest expectations of a decrease of 1 million. Those of distilled products (fuel oil, diesel) fell by 800,000 barrels once morest -500,000 forecast by analysts.
Crude prices immediately jumped on the release of these figures.
The barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in September climbed 2.08% to 106.57 dollars around 3:15 p.m. GMT.
The barrel of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery the same month soared 2.36% to 97.22 dollars.
Added to this reduction in crude stocks is a further drain on strategic reserves of 5.6 million barrels.
These reserves, which President Joe Biden decided to draw on this year to strengthen the supply of crude and weigh on barrel prices, now stand at 474.5 million barrels once morest 621 million a year ago.
This general drop in stocks is explained by an increase in exports (+789,000 barrels per day), a drop in imports (-355,000 barrels per day), an increase in demand for gasoline (+724,000 barrels per day) and kerosene (+127,000).
While global supply remains constrained, US production increased to 12.1 million barrels per day from 11.9 in the previous period.
However, the rate of utilization of refinery capacities fell further to 92.2% once morest 93.7% the week before and 94.9% at the beginning of July.
Despite greater use of inventories, US demand for petroleum products fell slightly to 19.97 million barrels (-1 million barrels per day) mainly due to a drop in demand for propane and gas. other by-products.