On March 12 (Wednesday), the inventory report released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed that U.S. crude oil inventories increased last week, while gasoline and distillate inventories decreased.

Data showed that as of the week of March 7, U.S. crude oil inventories increased by 1.448 million barrels to 435.22 million barrels, while market analysts estimated an increase of 2.001 million barrels.

The EIA said that crude oil inventories in Cushing, Oklahoma, decreased by 1.2 million barrels.

After the report was released, crude oil futures rose. The main May contract of Brent crude oil rose by $1.2 or 1.73% to $70.76 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures rose by $1.29 to $67.55 per barrel.

Refinery crude oil processing increased by 321,000 barrels per day, and capacity utilization increased by 0.6 percentage points to 86.5%.

Gasoline inventories fell by 5.737 million barrels to 241.1 million barrels that week, while the market expected a decrease of 1.882 million barrels.

Distillate inventories, including heating oil and diesel, fell by 1.559 million barrels to 117.6 million barrels, while the market expected a decrease of 757,000 barrels.

Last week, U.S. net crude oil imports increased by 503,000 barrels per day.

In addition, the EIA report showed that U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) inventories increased by 300,000 barrels to 395.6 million barrels that week, the highest since November 2022.

Gasoline inventories in the Midwest of the United States rose to the highest level since February 2024.

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