Oil inventory rises as imports rebound

(AFP) Oil stockpiles increased unexpectedly last week, according to figures released Wednesday by the Energy Information Agency (EIA), mainly due to a rebound in imports.

For the week that ended on Oct. 31, those commercial stockpiles rose by about 5.2 million barrels, while analysts had expected a decline of 286,000 barrels, according to the consensus set by Bloomberg.

In total, excluding the strategic reserve, inventory stood at 421.2 million barrels.

This evolution is partly explained by an increase in imports of 17.3%, bringing them back to their usual level of around 6 million barrels per day.

Exports remained stable at 4.37 million barrels per day.

The rise in inventory is also due to a statistical adjustment, since the EIA corrects each week the data for the preceding period.

On this occasion, the agency added around 393,000 barrels per day to the volumes of crude oil entering the U.S. market.

Another factor was the drop in demand, as volumes of refined products delivered to the U.S. market declined by 4% from one week to the next.

According to the EIA, U.S. production rose slightly at the end of October to 13.65 million barrels per day.

Refineries continued to operate at a lower-than-usual rate due to the fall maintenance period. Last week, they were at 86% capacity, a decrease compared to the previous period.