US crude oil stocks rose significantly

Oil prices closed trading almost 2% up yesterday thanks to rising equity markets. The official inventory data published by the US Department of Energy generated only brief selling pressure in the afternoon. They show that US crude oil stocks increased by 4.7 million barrels last week, which is significantly more than expected but less than had been reported by the API the day before. 

The inventory build was due to a combination of noticeably higher imports and a lower rate of crude oil processing. A 119,000 barrel per day decline in crude oil output to a good 9.2 million barrels per day was not nearly sufficient to offset this, notes Commerzbank. Based on the non-revised weekly figures, this corresponds to the lowest production level since the end of January. If the revised monthly figures are taken as the benchmark, US crude oil production was last lower in November 2014.