The EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report, released on Wednesday 03 June for the week to 29 May, put US crude stocks at 424.4mb, down 7.97mb week-on-week.1 That is the sixth consecutive draw and the largest single week since February, against a roughly 4mb consensus, and it leaves stocks 4% below the five-year average. The EIA is the statistical arm of the US Department of Energy, and its Wednesday report is the reference inventory print for global oil desks. Refinery utilisation held at 94.8%, so crude is being pulled at top-of-range runs.
The flat price did not follow. Brent, the seaborne benchmark, settled $96.97 on Thursday 04 June, held under $100 by the Iran diplomacy narrative.2 With the screen anaesthetised, the ICE Gasoil crack, the NWE diesel-versus-crude margin that held near $54 through the prior $14 Brent sell-off, is arbitrating where the flat price will not. The sixth draw drove Brent's three-session rebound into Wednesday, building on the prior week's draw to 441.7mb.
One bearish tell sits inside the same report. Distillate stocks built +1.7mb, the first build after weeks of draws, though still 6% under the five-year band. Gasoline built +4.8mb, trimming the gasoline crack support that the 8.2mb draw to 211.6mb had underwritten a fortnight earlier. China's seaborne crude demand stays a hole rather than a recovery, which keeps Atlantic-basin product competition soft and defends the gasoil crack from the demand side as well.
