Crude oil inventories in the United States decreased by 6.2 million barrels during the week ending April 24, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The decrease brings commercial stockpiles to 459.5 million barrels according to government data, which is still 1% above the five-year average for this time of year, despite a flurry of weekly losses.

The EIA’s data release follows API’s figures that were released a day earlier, which reported that crude oil inventories saw a draw of 1.79 million barrels in the period.

Crude prices were on the rise Wednesday morning. At 9:42 a.m. in New York, Brent was trading at $116.70 per barrel—up $5.43 (+4.88%) on the day, and up roughly $17 per barrel from this time last week. WTI was also trading up on the day, by $4.65 per barrel (+4.65%) in early morning trade at $104.60, up nearly $15 per barrel week over week.

For total motor gasoline, the EIA reported that inventories had decreased by 6.1 million barrels on top of the 4.6 million barrels lost in the week prior. The most recent figures showed average daily gasoline production decreased to 9.8 million barrels. For middle distillates, inventories decreased by 4.5 million barrels with production decreasing to an average of 4.9 million barrels daily. Distillate inventories are now 11% below the five-year average.

Total products supplied—a proxy for U.S. oil demand—averaged 20.6 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, up 4.6% compared to the same period last year. Gasoline demand averaged 9.0 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, while the distillate four-week average supplied averaged 4.0 million barrels—up 4.8% percent year over year.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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