US crude oil stockpiles increased by 4.4 million barrels to reach 428.8 million barrels in the week ending August 14, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported on Wednesday.

The figures come from the EIA's weekly petroleum inventory data, the U.S. government's primary statistical source on commercial crude oil and refined product stocks. The EIA, the statistical and analytical agency within the U.S. Department of Energy, publishes the report weekly, typically on Wednesdays, with the release shifted to Thursdays when a federal holiday falls within the week. It is widely followed as an indicator of supply and demand conditions in the United States, the world's largest oil-consuming country. The inventories tracked in the report are commercial stocks held by refineries, terminals, and pipelines; they exclude the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the government's emergency crude stockpile, which the EIA reports separately.

Gasoline inventories rose by 0.7 million barrels to 209.4 million barrels during the same period, according to the EIA data. The week falls within the U.S. summer driving season, the stretch between the Memorial Day and Labor Day holidays when gasoline consumption is typically at its annual peak, a period in which fuel distributors and refiners watch gasoline stock levels particularly closely.

Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, decreased by 1.5 million barrels to 105.6 million barrels. Distillate inventories are typically built during the summer and autumn months ahead of the Northern Hemisphere heating season, when demand for heating oil rises, so movements in this category are tracked by analysts and policymakers well before winter.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery hub fell by 1.3 million barrels during the week. Cushing serves as the delivery point for the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures contract traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), which makes inventory levels at the hub a closely watched reference for U.S. oil markets. Because WTI prices are referenced in contracts and benchmarks across the global oil trade, Cushing's storage levels carry significance beyond the physical hub itself.

Refinery crude runs increased by 216,000 barrels per day, while utilization rates rose by 1 percentage point, the EIA said. Utilization is measured as the share of the country's operable refining capacity in use, and because refineries draw crude from inventories as feedstock while producing gasoline, diesel, and other products, shifts in runs and utilization feed into stock movements across the report's product categories.

Market participants routinely compare the EIA figures with the American Petroleum Institute's weekly industry survey, released a day earlier, and against analyst expectations compiled in advance of each release. Subsequent weekly EIA reports will show whether the crude build and the distillate draw represent a developing trend or a single-week move.

Source: Investing.com