Commercial crude oil inventories in the United States decreased by 5 million barrels in the week ending May 15th, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced on Wednesday. This reading came in lower than the market expectation for an increase of 1.1 million barrels.
Market reaction
The barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) pulled away from the multi-month highs it set at $33.72 earlier in the day and was last up 4.4% at $33.25.
Additional takeaways
“US crude oil refinery inputs averaged 12.9 million barrels per day during the week ending May 15, 2020 which was 0.5 million barrels per day more than the previous week’s average.”
“Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 16.1 million barrels a day, down by 19.0% from the same period last year.”
“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 6.7 million barrels a day, down by 29.1% from the same period last year.”