Weekly US oil and gasoline inventories fall rapidly, DoE says

US crude oil inventories shrank sharply during the preceding week as exports and refinery activity picked up.

According to the Department of Energy, commercial oil stockpiles slumped by 9.6m barrels over the week ending on 15 March to reach 439.5m barrels, putting them 2% below their five-year average.

Gasoline inventories meanwhile were down by 4.6m barrels and those of distillates by 4.1m barrels, even as those of propane/propylene increased by 1.0m.

Net imports meanwhile were down by 660,000 barrels a day to 3.54m b/d as exports jumped by 846,000 b/d to 3.392m b/d.

In parallel, the rate of activity at refineries rose to 88.9%.

Domestic US oil output meanwhile grew by 100,000 b/d to hit 12.1m b/d.

In response to Wednesday's figure, as of 1550 GMT front month Brent crude oil futures were climbing 1.01% to $68.36 a barrel on the NYMEX.