Crude inventories increased by 692,000 barrels during the week to April 22, compared with analysts' expectations for a build of 2.0 million barrels, the EIA’s Weekly Petroleum Status Report showed. While crude stockpiles had fallen 8.02 million barrels in the previous week to April 15, they had risen by 9.38 million and 2.42 million barrels in the two weeks prior.
Weekly balances in crude have been building of late due to a steady stream of releases from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The EIA report showed that the Biden administration authorized the release of 2.9 million barrels from the SPR during the week to April 22, keeping up with the near 3.0 million barrels or more issued from the reserve each week since mid-March.
The Biden administration has been making SPR withdrawals since November to bridge a shortfall in global supplies of crude, intensified by the West’s sanctions on Russia. The administration’s biggest SPR releases will commence from May when it issues a total of 180 million barrels from the reserve. Another 60 million barrels are due to be released into the world market in May by US allies and member countries in the International Energy Agency.
Tight oil supplies had pushed the global price of crude to 14-year highs of almost $140 a barrel in March and the pump price of US gasoline to a record high of above $4.30 a gallon.