Official data on Wednesday showed a sharp decline in US crude oil inventories by 7.2 million barrels last week.
It fell to its lowest level since September 2019, as production was disrupted in the Gulf of Mexico due to Hurricane Ida.
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The Energy Information Administration said in its latest reports that commercial crude stocks amounted to 425.4 million barrels in the week ending on August 27.
Which witnessed a decrease from 432.4 million barrels in the previous week.
This decline represents more than twice the estimates of analysts, who had expected a decline of 3.1 million barrels.
According to the new data, US stocks of motor fuel (gasoline) increased by 1.3 million barrels to 224.7 million last week, from 226 million in the previous week.
While distillate stocks decreased by 1.7 million barrels to 136.7 million last week from 138.4 million in the previous week.
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Hurricane Ida hit the southern coasts of the United States last week, disrupting about 1.7 million barrels per day, constituting 17 percent of the country’s crude production.
The Energy Information Administration said that the average consumption of US refineries of crude amounted to 15.9 million barrels per day during the past week, down by 133 thousand barrels from the average of the previous week.
And US refineries worked at 91.3 percent of their operating capacity last week, down from 92.2 percent in the previous week.
While Hurricane Ida explains the sharp decline in crude oil stocks in the United States.
The decline in “gasoline” stocks reflects the decline in refining activities and the decrease in fuel demand due to the outbreak of the new Corona strain “Delta”.
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The Energy Information Administration said that the country’s average imports of crude oil amounted to 6.3 million barrels per day last week, an increase of 183,000 barrels per day from the previous one.
