Brent Crude Surges Above $103 as US Inventories Defy Expectations
Oil prices surged yesterday, with Brent crude futures rising by nearly 4% to settle above $103 per barrel. The increase was largely driven by a larger-than-expected build-up in US crude oil inventories, which rose by 3 million barrels in the week ended September 18. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), analysts had predicted a decline of approximately 641,000 barrels.
The EIA also reported that refinery crude runs declined by 519,000 barrels per day, while refinery utilization fell by 2.8 percentage points to 94%. On the other hand, distillate inventories dropped by 428,000 barrels to 107.4 million barrels, and gasoline inventories fell by 1.7 million barrels to 206 million barrels.
US net crude oil imports also increased by 369,000 barrels per day during the week, which could be a contributing factor to the rise in prices. The news comes as Kazakhstan announced plans to boost capacity at three refineries through expansion projects.