U.S. crude inventories added over a million barrels of oil last week, a development that will likely stoke concerns of a persistent global oil glut.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said Wednesday that U.S. crude inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, increased by 1.4 million barrels during the week of July 29.
U.S. crude oil inventories were at 522.5 million barrels as of July 29, a historically high level for this time of year, the EIA said.
U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged about 16.9 million barrels per day during the week of July 29, up 266,000 barrels per day from the previous week’s average.
Refineries operated at 93.3 percent of their operable capacity last week.
The EIA said that gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 10.0 million barrels per day.
Distillate fuel production grew last week, averaging over 4.9 million barrels per day.
U.S. crude oil imports grew by just over 300,000 barrels per day last week to average over 8.7 million barrels per day for the week of July 29.
Over the last four weeks, crude oil imports averaged 8.3 million barrels per day, 10.4 percent above the same four-week period last year.
Total commercial petroleum inventories grew by 2.1 million barrels last week, the agency said.
Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged about 20.5 million barrels per day, up by 0.6 percent from the same period last year.
Total motor gasoline inventories declined by 3.3 million barrels last week, but are still “well above the upper limit of the average range,” the EIA said.
Distillate fuel inventories grew by 1.2 million barrels last week and are now “above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year,” the EIA said.
Propane/propylene inventories added 0.3 million barrels last week and are near the upper limit of the average range.
According to Oil Price, crude traders have boosted their short positions for West Texas Intermediate by the largest volume since data tracking began ten years ago.
The bearish bets have pulled the net long position for WTI down to its lowest level since February, Oil Price added.
WTI was trading at $40.18 per barrel Wednesday morning, up about 2 percent after falling just below $40 per barrel during trading on Tuesday.
