US commercial crude stocks continue to grow to record highs

Oil

US commercial crude oil inventories grew by 1.4M bbls w-o-w to 540.7M bbls during the week ending June 19, as stocks grew to fresh record highs for the third consecutive week, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). This is around 16% higher than the five-year average for this time of year. Refinery inputs rose by 240K b/d w-o-w to 13.8M b/d, increasing for the sixth week in a row. Utilisation was up by 0.8% w-o-w to 74.6% of operable capacity, the highest level since the week ending April 3. Crude oil imports declined by 100K b/d w-o-w to 6.5M b/d.