The United States experienced a smaller-than-anticipated decline in crude oil inventories for the week ending December 27th, as disclosed by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday.
The EIA report detailed a reduction of 1.2 million barrels of crude oil last week, following a decrease of 4.2 million barrels in the preceding week. Economists had predicted a more substantial drop of 2.8 million barrels.
Currently, U.S. crude oil inventories stand at 415.6 million barrels, which positions them roughly 5% below the five-year average for this period, according to the EIA.
Conversely, gasoline inventories witnessed a significant increase of 7.7 million barrels last week, placing them just marginally below the five-year average for this time of year.
Additionally, the report highlighted that distillate fuel inventories, encompassing heating oil and diesel, rose by 6.4 million barrels last week but remain about 6% below the typical five-year average for this season.
