WTI slips following weekly DoE inventory data

US crude oil inventories rose last week as net imports recovered and domestic output continued climbing higher.

According to the Energy Information Administration, the US Department of Energy's statistical arm, commercial crude oil inventories jumped by 6.8m barrels to reach 414.2m barrels (consensus: -2.5m barrels) over the week ending on 10 August, putting them roughly 1.0% above their five-year average.

Central to that gain, net imports increased by 1.341m b/d to reach 7.422m barrels, helped by a 258,000 b/d drop in exports.

Domestic production also strengthened, increasing by 100,000 b/d to 10.9m b/d.

Significantly, refineries ramped-up their operating rate to 98.1%, despite which gasoline inventories fell by 0.7m barrels, although they remained nearly 5% above their five-year average, while distillate fuel inventories increased by 3.6m barrels.

"Even though consumption is strong at the minute, we expect a slowdown in US economic growth to weigh on demand in 2019 and 2020. Combined with rapid supply growth, this should put further downward pressure on oil prices," Capital Economics's Thomas Pugh said following the release of the data.

As of 1824 BST, front month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures were down by 2.869% at $65.17 a barrel on the ICE.