Selling Crude Oil on Major EIA Inventory Buildup

• Weekly US oil inventories +7,648K vs +2,083K expected
• Prior week buildup was +16,283K
• Gasoline -1,856K vs +2,317K
• Distillates 2,698K vs -1,285K
• Refinery utilization -0.6% vs -0.2% expected

Here were the API numbers, which undoubtedly leaked:

• Crude +9,895K
• Gasoline +894K
• Distillates +1,374K

WTI crude oil was trading at $75.54 ahead of the release and was little moved on the headline on the kneejerk, which shows that the numbers weren’t much of a surprise. Here is implied demand for all products from Giovanni Staunovo, which well-below last year, though the numbers were revised much higher in the summer and late last year when the monthly data was released.

Meanwhile, analysts expect the demand for Oil to pick up in China and lead to record imports this year, which has curbed the decline in Oil prices, with the low still holding above $70 in the US WTI crude. The move in sentiment and the USD hasn’t affected Oil much either, which means that Oil is doing its own thing and not following financial markets.