Oil Up on Strong Year-End U.S. Crude, Gasoline Draws

By Barani Krishnan

Investing.com - Oil prices rose for a sixth straight day on Wednesday after U.S. inventory data showed strong drawdowns for both crude and fuels last week as Americans resumed year-end travel and festivities after being assured of lower risks from Covid’s Omicron variant.

Crude prices have also been trending higher in anticipation of positive action and remarks in the coming week when global producer group OPEC+ holds its first meeting for the new year.

West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for U.S. crude, settled Wednesday’s trade up 58 cents, or 0.8%, at $76.56 per barrel. WTI has risen more than 12% over the past six sessions, after slumping to a three-week low of $66.04 on Dec. 20 on fears about a wave of Omicron infections reported that week. Year-to-date, WTI is up 57%.

London-traded Brent, the global benchmark for oil, settled up 29 cents, or 0.4%, at $79.23. Brent is up more than 11% from its Dec. 20 low of $72.87. Year-to-date, Brent is up 53%.

U.S. health authorities, led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have told Americans over the past week that Omicron appears to be a milder form of the coronavirus compared with the original Covid-19 strain or the Delta variant, especially for those who are vaccinated. 

Separately, the average number of daily confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States hit a record high of 258,312 over the past seven days, figures compiled by Reuters showed. The report did not determine how many of those infected were unvaccinated.

The final weeks of December are typically strong periods for gasoline and diesel consumption in the United States as people take to the road for Christmas, New Year and holiday travels. Trucking activity is also heavy at this time of year due to seasonal gift deliveries.

Weekly oil inventory data from the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday reinforced those trends.

Crude inventories fell by 3.576 million barrels during the week ended Dec. 24, the EIA reported in its Weekly Petroleum Status Report. 

Industry analysts tracked by Investing.com had anticipated a drawdown of just around 3.233 million barrels for the week.

The latest crude stockpile drop followed back-to-back declines of 4.715 million and 4.584 million barrels in two previous weeks that also exceeded expectations.

In an aberration to usual consumption, U.S. gasoline stockpiles swelled two weeks ago by their most in six months as fuel demand briefly slumped amid cutbacks to social activity triggered by Omicron concerns.

By last week though, gasoline usage was back to seasonal trends, with inventories falling by 1.459 million barrels, their most since early November. Analysts had forecast a gasoline consumption of 31,000 barrels for last week.

Distillates inventories also fell by a substantial 1.726 million barrels last week, the most in three weeks, versus expectations for a drawdown of  59,000 barrels.

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