The Energy Information Administration published a report last Wednesday which indicated an unexpected increase in U.S. crude oil inventories for the week ending March 22nd. According to the report, there was a significant rise in crude oil inventories, as they climbed by 3.2 million barrels, following a decrease of 2.0 million barrels the week before. This was contrary to economists' predictions who had anticipated the inventories to shrink by an additional 1.3 million barrels.
However, despite this recent weekly increase, the U.S. crude oil inventories are still around 2 percent below the average of the past five years for this period.
The EIA's report also revealed that gasoline inventories saw an increase of 1.3 million barrels the previous week, but they are still around 1 percent lower than the five-year average for this time.
On the other hand, distillate fuel inventories, which include both heating oil and diesel, experienced a drop by 1.2 million barrels and they now stand approximately 6 percent below the average of the past five years for this period.
