U.S. crude imports from Nigeria surged to 364,000 bpd last week—the highest since October 2019—according to the EIA. The spike followed an unplanned outage at Nigeria’s Dangote refinery from April 7 to May 11. U.S. crude inventories fell by 2.8 million barrels, while crude exports rose by 794,000 bpd to 4.3 million bpd, contributing to the draw. UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo called the report supportive due to the export-driven inventory decline.
Ahead of Memorial Day, increased demand from pumping stations led to higher implied consumption and draws in gasoline and distillate stocks. U.S. gasoline inventories fell by 2.4 million barrels, far exceeding analyst expectations. Crude prices rose slightly after the EIA reported a surprise stockpile drop but remained in negative territory, with Brent at $64.34 and WTI at $61.20 per barrel. Crude stocks at Cushing rose by 75,000 barrels, while refinery runs dropped by 162,000 bpd and utilization fell to 90.2%.
U.S. gasoline demand rose to 9.45 million bpd last week, up from 8.64 million bpd the week before. Distillate inventories dropped by 724,000 barrels to 103.4 million, defying expectations for an increase and hitting their lowest level since April 2005. Midwest distillate stocks also hit their lowest since November 2017. Net U.S. crude imports fell by 532,000 bpd to 2.05 million bpd.
