Oil prices did not fall even after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported an 8.4 million barrel rise in crude inventories for the week ended January 13
This compared to a substantial gain of 19 million barrels estimated by the EIA the previous week. Despite its size, the build-up failed to make much of an impact on prices, as hopes for a rapid recovery in oil demand in China were not encouraging.
For the second week of the month, the EIA also reported mixed estimates for fuel. Gasoline inventories rose, while middle distillate inventories declined during the reporting period.
On the gasoline front, the EIA estimated an inventory build of 3.5 million barrels for the second week of January, with production averaging 8.9 million barrels per day.
This compares to an increase of 4.1 million barrels in inventories in the previous week and production of 8.5 million barrels per day.
The EIA estimates that middle distillate inventories fell by 1.9 million barrels for the week to January 13, with production averaging 4.6 million bpd.
This compares to a 1.1 million barrel inventory decline for the previous week and production of 4.5 million bpd.