EIA: US Crude Inventories Rise Unexpectedly As Exports Drop

U.S. crude oil inventories rose unexpectedly last week as exports fell, while gasoline stocks decreased and distillate inventories rose, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Aug. 1.

Crude inventories rose 3.8 million barrels in the week to July 27, compared with analysts’ expectations for a decrease of 2.8 million barrels.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Okla., delivery hub fell by 1.3 million barrels, the EIA said, the lowest level since October 2014. Inventories at the delivery point for U.S. crude futures have plunged after an outage at Syncrude’s oil sands facility in northern Alberta, Canada, in June dented flows to the hub.