Having pushed above $70 after last night’s API-reported crude draw, WTI is extending gains after DOE confirmed a sizable crude draw (though smaller than API) offset by large product builds (distillates), and helped by a production decline.

API

  • Crude -8.636mm (-1.75mm exp) – biggest draw since July 2018

  • Cushing +2.122mm (+900k exp) – biggest build since March 2018

  • Gasoline +5.821mm – biggest build since Dec 2017

  • Distillates -1.165mm

  • DOE

  • Crude -5.3mm (-1.75mm exp)

  • Cushing -1.24mm (+900k exp)

  • Gasoline +1.25mm

  • Distillates +6.16mm – biggest build since Dec 2017

  • The 4th weekly crude draw in a row but dominated by the biggest distillate build since Dec 2017…U.S. crude inventories are now at lowest since February 2015. There was also a 1.24 million-barrel draw in Cushing, but that was more than offset by about 7.4 million barrels of additions in gasoline and distillates.

     

    Gasoline and diesel demand each dipped by 1 million barrels a day on the week. That slowing demand, coupled with ramped-up production at refineries, pushed distillate stocks back up to almost normal levels for this time of year. 

    Despite the smaller than API crude draw and bigger than API product build, WTI is extending gains testing towards $71…

     

    As WTI neared $71, Brent touched $80 for the first time since May.