A Reuters survey released on the 2nd indicates that U.S. commercial crude oil inventories are expected to have declined for a seventh consecutive week, with gasoline and distillate stocks also projected to have fallen.
The average forecast from a poll of nine industry analysts suggests that U.S. crude inventories likely decreased by approximately 4 million barrels in the week ending May 29th. Concurrently, gasoline stocks are estimated to have dropped by about 500,000 barrels, while distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, are forecast to have fallen by roughly 300,000 barrels. Regarding refinery operations, the overall U.S. refinery utilization rate is predicted to have edged up by 0.3 percentage points from the previous week's level of 94.5%.
Separate internal data released the same day by the industry group American Petroleum Institute (API) showed that last week's U.S. crude and product inventories broadly aligned with the market's expectation for an overall drawdown. Specifically, for the week ending May 29th, U.S. crude stocks plunged by 6.8 million barrels, distillate inventories decreased by 214,000 barrels, while gasoline stocks unexpectedly increased by 3.5 million barrels.
Previously, official data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed that for the week ending May 22nd, U.S. commercial crude inventories had already fallen by 3.3 million barrels to 441.7 million barrels, with distillate and gasoline stocks also recording declines of 2.1 million barrels and 2.6 million barrels, respectively.
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