Investing.com -- U.S. crude oil stockpiles fell by more than 6 million barrels in the just-ended week, according to a government report Thursday that showed a four straight weekly decline in inventory as refiners maxed out fuel processing in preparation for the final hurrah in summer travel.
The Labor Day holiday on Sept 4 unofficially brought to an end U.S. road trips for the summer. Refiners had doubled down on fuel processing in the four weeks running up to the holiday, maintaining an extraordinarily high run rate of more than 93% of capacity.
The U.S. crude inventory balance dropped by 6.307M barrels during the week ended Sept. 1, according to the Weekly Petroleum Status Report of the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA. In the prior week to Aug. 25, there was a draw of 10.584M barrels.
On the fuels side, the EIA reported a drawdown as well in gasoline inventories and a build in distillates.
On the gasoline inventory front, the EIA reported a decline of 2.666M barrels, after a slide of 0.214M barrels last week. Analysts had forecast a decline of 0.950M for last week. Automotive fuel gasoline is the No. 1 U.S. fuel product.
With distillate stockpiles, there was a build of 0.679M that added to the prior week’s gain of 1.235M. Analysts had anticipated a build of 0.239M for last week. Distillates are refined into heating oil, diesel for trucks, buses, trains and ships and fuel for jets.