EIA or the Energy Information Administration claimed on Wednesday that last week the crude oil supplies of the United States have risen abruptly, while the U.S. gasoline on the other hand collapsed, as refineries remained to be in a weak position by damage from Hurricane Harvey.
In accordance to this, according to reports, gasoline refineries operated at their lowest level in nine years after the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey, with closed plants on the Texas Coast along with oil production operations and ports. Gasoline stocks collapsed to 8.4 million barrels, and are considered as the gasoline’s largest draw on record, compared to 2.1 million barrel drop which was estimated and expected by analysts.
Whereas the shuttered crude oil production have started to resume to service, with approximate supply rising to 9.4 million barrels per day in the week to September 8, which was higher from 8.8 million barrels per day a week earlier. Compared to what analysts have estimated, crude inventories now rose to an approximate amount of 5.9 million barrels compared to the estimated 3.2 million barrels.
In relevance to this, Abhishek Kumar, Senior Energy Analyst at Interfax Energy Global Gas Analytics in London said that the impact of the 2017 Atlantic Hurricane season continues to be seen in today’s current events with a build observed in the commercial crude supply and drawdowns in refine products. However, given this statements, Abhishek Kumar said that the focus now shifts to the post-Harvey Scenario.