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U.S. crude oil inventories increased by more than expected last week for a fourth consecutive week, while product stocks declined, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Data released Thursday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration show that commercial crude oil stocks excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve rose by 4.6 million barrels to 432.5 million barrels in the week ended Feb. 14 and were about 3% below the five-year average for the time of year, the EIA said.
The growth is higher than expected. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had forecast crude stockpiles to be up by 2.4 million barrels.
The EIA estimated U.S. crude oil production at 13.5 million barrels a day, practically unchanged from the week before. Refinery capacity use slipped by one tenth of a percentage point to 84.9%, compared with an estimated 0.3 percentage point decline in the Journal survey.
