Weekly DoE data knocks WTI futures off their perch

US oil stockpiles rose unexpectedly last week despite rising rates of refinery utilisation.

Commercial US crude oil inventories jumped by 1.6m barrels during the week ending on 31 March to reach 535.5m, according to the Energy Information Administration, the Department of Energy's statistical arm.

That was well in excess of the 600,000 barrel drop forecast by analysts polled by Bloomberg.

In parallel, the rate of refinery use reached 90.8%.

Gasoline inventories on the other hand decreased by 0.6m (consensus: -1.4m) while those of distillates fell by 0.5m.

Meanwhile, imports of crude oil declined by 374,000 barrels a day in comparison to the previous week. In parallel, exports of crude slipped to roughly 0.6m, down from more than 1.0m during the previous week, Thomas Pugh at Capital Economics pointed out.

Push also highlighted the contribution to inventories from both increased production and reduced exports, despite which product stocks still fell, adding that supply disruptions in Libya and Nigeria were still supporting futures.

As well, in his opinion the inverse relationship between refinery inputs and inventories appeared to have broken down.

As of 1644 GMT, West Texas Intermediate futures were up by 0.08% to $51.07 a barrel on the ICE but well off their intraday highs of $51.88 hit just prior to the release of Wednesday's data.