WTI oil is swinging between gains and losses as traders focus on geopolitical news and react to the EIA report. The Strait of Hormuz remains closed, and there are no signs indicating that U.S. and Iran are ready for a temporary deal.
The EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report indicated that crude inventories increased by +17.4 million barrels from the previous week, compared to analyst forecast of -1.4 million barrels. At current levels, crude inventories are about 2% below the five-year average for this time of the year.
Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by -1.0 million barrels, compared to analyst consensus of -1.2 million barrels. Distillate fuel inventories declined by -0.1 million barrels from the previous week.
U.S. crude oil imports increased by +1.14 million bpd from the previous week, averaging 7.3 million bpd. Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged 6.3 million bpd.
Strategic Petroleum Reserve declined from 304.8 million barrels to 298.7 million barrels as U.S. continued to sell oil from strategic reserves. It should be noted that SPR is at multi-decade lows, which is bullish for oil markets.