WTI futures higher even after DoE reports jump in US crude oil stockpiles

US oil inventories surged last week, but the increase was almost completely offset by drops in product stockpiles.

According to the Department of Energy, America's stores of commercial crude oil rose by 7.0m barrels over the week ending on 5 April to reach 456.5m barrels (consensus: 2.3m b/d), leaving them at their average level of the past five years.

But those of gasoline dropped by 7.7m barrels, which also put them at their five-year average, partly because many refineries were shut down during the seasonal maintenance period.

And the Houston ship channel was returning to normality, said Samuel Burman at Capital Economics.

Distillate fuel oil inventories meanwhile dipped by 0.1m barrels and were 6% below their five-year average, although those of propane/propylene did grow by 1.2m barrels.

In the background, domestic US oil output was flat at 12.2m barrels per day with net imports rising by 210,000 b/d.

Refineries meanwhile operated at 87.5% of capacity, a tad more than over the prior week.

Significantly, as Burman pointed out, stockpiles at Cushing, Oklahoma, the pricing point for West Texas Intermediate, shrank by 1.1m barrels.

Burman also weighed in on the outlook for US net imports of crude, predicting that "in the year ahead [...] net imports will fall in part because US exports will be facilitated by new pipeline capacity."

As of 1905 BST, front month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for May delivery were adding 0.89% to $64.55 a barrel, as similarly-dated RBOB gasoline on NYMEX snapped higher by 3.14% to $2.0617 a gallon and an advance of 1.46% to $71.64 for June-dated Brent.