US crude oil inventories little changed last week, DoE says

US crude oil stockpiles were little changed last week, but product inventories jumped, implying "waning" demand, according to analysts.

According to the US Department of Energy, commercial oil inventories were "virtually unchanged" over the week ending on 28 December at 441.1m barrels when compared to the prior seven-day stretch, increasing by only 7,000.

But gasoline inventories increased by 6.9m barrels and those of distillate fuels grew by 9.5m.

The former were standing roughly 5% above their five-year average for that time of year, while the latter were about 7% below their five-year average.

Contributing to those increases, net imports, including the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, jumped by 468,000 barrels a day to 5.155m, thanks to a 732,000 b/d decline in US oil exports to 2.237m b/d.

Domestic US oil output meanwhile was steady at 11.7m b/d, stocks in the SPR were unchanged and inventories at Cushing - where West Texas Intermediate oil is priced - increased by 600,000 barrels.

US refineries meanwhile operated at 97.2% of operating capacity, as firms reacted to the "attractive" margins on offer, said Capital Economics's Yasemin Engin.

Nonetheless, Engin added that: "While the hefty builds in gasoline stocks and distillate stocks of 6.8m and 9.5 barrels, respectively, can be partly explained by the higher refinery run rate, they also point to softness in consumption growth. Indeed, the four-week moving averages of gasoline and distillate demand continued to decline."

Friday's numbers from the DoE stood in stark contrast to those from the American Petroleum Institute, published the night before, which reports said had revealed a 4.5m barrel drop for the same week.

As of 1639 GMT, front month Brent crude oil futures were 2.237% higher at $57.22 per barrel on the ICE.