US Fuel Demand Larger Than Expected Amid Benign Weather - Report

US fuel demand was larger than expected last week, with the government reporting on Wednesday drawdowns of more than six million barrels in gasoline and three million barrels in diesel-dominated distillates amid fair weather that encouraged more driving

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd March, 2023) US fuel demand was larger than expected last week, with the government reporting on Wednesday drawdowns of more than six million barrels in gasoline and three million barrels in diesel-dominated distillates amid fair weather that encouraged more driving.

Gasoline inventories saw a drawdown of� 6.399 million barrels during the week ended March 17, more than triple the drop of 2.061 million barrels of gasoline noted in the prior week to March 10, the Energy Information Information (EIA) said in its Weekly Petroleum Status Report.

Analysts polled by US media had only expected the EIA to report a gasoline stockpile drop of 1.677 million barrels on the average for last week.

With distillate stockpiles, the EIA reported a 3.313 million barrel draw, against expectations for a drop of 1.5 million and versus the prior week's deficit of 2.537 million. Distillates, which are refined into heating oil, diesel for trucks, buses, trains and ships and fuel for jets, are often the strongest demand component of the US petroleum complex.

The larger-than-expected drawdown in fuels came on the back of benign weather in the United States last week as the end of an unusually warm winter ushered in even higher spring temperatures that encouraged more Americans to drive.

Despite the higher fuel consumption, crude oil balances in storage rose for a second week in a row, the EIA report showed, suggesting a continuation of refinery maintenance and outages that led to less processing of crude.

Crude stockpiles rose by 1.117 million barrels during the week ended March 17. In the previous week to March 10, there was a build of 1.55 million barrels.

Except for one week, crude inventories have risen over the past 13 weeks, resulting in a net build of more than 60 million barrels since the start of this year.