The report from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that total crude oil and petroleum products (ex. SPR) stocks dropped -1.59 mmb to 1286.81 mmb in the week ended October 11. Crude oil inventory jumped +9.28 mmb to 434.85 mmb (consensus: +2.88 mmb). Inventories increased in ALL PADDs. PADD 3 (Gulf Coast) alone saw +5.52 addition in stockpile. Cushing stock added +1.28 mmb to 42.95 mmb. Utilization rate slipped -2.6 percentage point to 83.1% while crude production steadied at 12.6M bpd for the week. Crude oil imports dropped -1.32M bpd to 6.3M bpd in the week. The market, generally with increased risk appetite amidst hopes that OPEC will extend output cut, and UK and EU will reach a Brexit deal, shrugged off the news. The front-month WTI crude oil futures gained for second consecutive day.
Distillate inventory plunged -3.82 mmb to 123.5 mmb. Demand rose +8.18% to 4.37M bpd. The market had anticipated a -2.38 mmb decrease in inventory. Production fell -3.04% to 4.69M bpd while imports soared +114.13% to 0.2M bpd during the week.