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In the last week, data from the Energy Information Administration showed an unexpected increase in oil inventories.
Reserves were up 2.951 million barrels to 462.584 million units, versus estimates of a 1.1 million barrel decline according to Bloomberg. Gasoline inventories fell by 3.167 million barrels to 219.711 million barrels, against expectations for a decline of 1 million. Distillate inventories, which include heating fuel, fell 4.17 million barrels to 106.153 million barrels, versus an expected decline of 0.8 million.
Plant capacity utilization increased by 0.3 percentage points to 91%, versus expectations of 91.2%. Crude oil prices are down, with WTI at 72.6 and Brent at 76.4 dollars a barrel.