Crude oil inventories in the United States increased by 5.5 million barrels during the week ending March 27, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The increase brings commercial stockpiles to 461.6 million barrels according to government data, which is 0.1% above the five-year average for this time of year.

The EIA’s data release follows API’s figures that were released a day earlier, which reported that crude oil inventories saw a build of 10.263 million barrels in the period.

Crude prices were down in Wednesday morning trade following the EIA publication and US President Donald Trump’s assertion that the war could end in a matter of weeks. At 10:52 a.m. in New York, Brent was trading at $101.70 per barrel—down $2.26 (-2.17%) on the day, but up $1.50 per barrel from this time last week. WTI was also trading down on the day, by $2.07 per barrel (-2.04%) in morning trade at $99.31 $88.63 per barrel—up $11 week over week.

For total motor gasoline, the EIA reported that inventories had decreased by 600,000 barrels after dipping by 2.6 million barrels in the week prior. The most recent figures showed average daily gasoline production decreased to 9.6 million barrels. For middle distillates, inventories decreased by 2.1 million barrels with production holding at an average  of 5.0 million barrels daily.

Total products supplied—a proxy for U.S. oil demand—averaged a healthy 20.9 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, up 4.2% compared to the same period last year. Gasoline demand averaged 8.9 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, while the distillate four-week average supplied averaged 4 million barrels—up 5.6% percent year over year.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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