By Dan Molinski
U.S. commercial inventories of crude oil increased sharply last week as cold weather caused refinery activity to slow much more than forecast, according to data released Thursday by the Energy Information Administration.
Benchmark U.S. oil prices that were higher before the mixed-to-bullish report was released added to those gains afterward. The Nymex front-month crude contract for February delivery was recently up 2.4% at $74.55 a barrel.
Commercial crude-oil stockpiles increased by 1.7 million barrels to 420.6 million barrels, and are now about 4% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted crude stockpiles would rise by 400,000 barrels from the prior week.
The increase was also partly due to another relatively large, 2.8 million-barrel transfer of crude oil last week from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve to the commercial side, part of Washington's year-long effort to boost supplies to reduce gas prices at the pump.
Oil stored at Cushing, Okla., the delivery point for U.S. stocks, increased by 244,000 barrels from the previous week, to 25.3 million barrels, the EIA said in its weekly report.
U.S. crude-oil production rose by 100,000 barrels a day from the previous week, to 12.1 million barrels a day, according to the EIA.
Gasoline stockpiles fell by 346,000 barrels, to 222.7 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations of a 200,000-barrel increase.
Distillate stocks, which are mostly diesel fuel, fell by 1.4 million barrels, to 118.8 million barrels, and are now about 14% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts had forecast distillates inventories would fall by just 600,000 barrels from the previous week.
The refining capacity utilization rate slid by a massive 12.4 percentage points from the previous week, to 79.6% as a blast of very cold weather disrupted operations. Analysts were forecasting just a 2.7 percentage-point decrease from the week prior.
U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Dec. 30: Crude Gasoline Distillates Refinery Use EIA data: +1.7 -0.3 -1.4 -12.4 Forecast: +0.4 +0.2 -0.6 -2.7
Note: Numbers in millions of barrels, with the exception of refinery use, which is in percentage points.
Write to Dan Molinski at dan.molinski@wsj.com
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