Crude oil stockpiles up 5 million barrels last week
The EIA said Crude oil prices fell significantly Wednesday after the US Energy Information Administration reported that stockpiles were up unexpectedly last week in the week ending 24 July to 347.8 million barrels in storage despite expectations that stockpiles would drop during the week, with gains coming as imports of crude were up and refiners held back on their activity.
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In the past four weeks, fuel consumption overall in the United States fell by 4.1 percent compared to the same period last year, with demand for distillates down 10.7 percent during the period.
September contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were $3.65 lower to $63.58 per barrel about half an hour before the close of floor trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude had dropped $3.36 to $66.52 per barrel at last report from the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.
Gasoline inventories, meanwhile, were 2.3 million barrels lower as the refiners made less of the fuel, but distillates in storage added 2.1 million barrels to 162.6 million barrels, their highest level in almost 25 years.
Also pushing prices lower was new data showing that durable goods orders in the US were down 2.5 percent in June, the biggest 1-month drop since January and much more than the expected decline of 0.6 percent.
Nymex September heating oil futures were 9 cents lower to $1.70 per gallon in afternoon trade in New York, while September natural gas was down 22 cents to $3.47 per million British thermal units.