Crude gains on larger-than-expected US gasoline draw

29 April 2009 15:58  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--The crude oil markets rose by about 50 cents on Wednesday, adding to earlier gains, when this week’s US stock figures showed a much larger-than-anticipated draw on gasoline, despite crude and distillate both showing larger-than-predicted builds.

Crude stocks were now at a new 19-year high after posting gains for the eighth week in a row.

June NYMEX light sweet crude futures rose from around $50.90/bbl before the figures from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) were published to hit a high of $51.42/bbl, which was a gain of $1.50 from Tuesday’s close.

However, it then lost a little ground and, at 14:40 GMT, June NYMEX crude was trading around $50.95/bbl, up $1.03 from Tuesday’s close of $49.92/bbl.

On ICE futures, June Brent also gained ground, rising from around $50.90/bbl before the figures were published to hit a high of $51.28/bbl.

At 14:40 GMT, June Brent was trading around $50.95/bbl, up 96 cents from Tuesday’s close of $49.99/bbl.

Analysts’ predictions for this week’s US stock figures were that they would show builds on crude stocks of about 2.1m bbl and on distillate of around 600,000 bbl, but a draw on gasoline of around 200,000 bbl.

The API figures were published late on Tuesday.

US stocks (million bbl)	w/e 24.04.09
	EIA	Change	API	Change
Crude	374.7	+4.1	374.8	+4.6
Gasoline	212.6	-4.7	216.0	-2.6
RFG	2.0	+0.2	2.2	-0.1
Distillate	144.1	+1.8	144.4	+1.6
Heating Oil	37.7	+1.5	37.5	+0.5
Jet Kerosene	40.2	+0.5	40.4	+0.8

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By: Tony Dillon
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