By Anthony Harrup
The Energy Information Administration's weekly report on oil and product inventories included what it called discrepancies in week-to-week changes in stocks of certain products, generating different interpretations of how much stocks changed.
The EIA said Thursday that crude oil stockpiles fell by 6.9 million barrels in the week ended Dec. 22 to 436.6 million barrels. Reported levels for the previous week were 443.7 million barrels, indicating a decline of 7.1 million barrels.
Week-to-week changes for numerous other data series also failed to match the given levels.
In a post-report statement, the EIA said the "discrepancies" in a number of data series arose from the previous week's correction of propane/propylene stocks, which led to revisions across the publication.
The decline in the level of crude stocks was calculated using the revisions, and the previous week's levels could be inferred from adding the weekly difference to the Dec. 22 levels, the EIA said, but it didn't give the revised numbers for the previous week.
The EIA this year has had some big shakeups in the way it collects the data, said Phil Flynn, an analyst at The Price Futures Group.
"I think they're having a more difficult time capturing inventories because of the shale revolution, the way they produce gas, and the fact we're now a major exporter as opposed to importer," he said. "They seem like they're still in the process of correcting things."
Flynn recalled that the EIA postponed its weekly report in early November to update its systems.
Week-on-week differences will match reported levels in the next week's status report, the EIA said, while four-week averages could be affected until mid-January and year-on-year differences will not match in December 2024. The EIA wasn't available for further comment Friday.
Despite the much bigger-than-expected draw on crude stocks for last week-analysts in a Wall Street Journal survey had forecast a reduction of 2.4 million barrels-oil prices fell Thursday. Crude prices were steady Friday, but on track for about a 10% loss for the year.
Dennis Kissler, senior vice president at BOK Financial, saw no issue with the discordance in the EIA's data report. The oil-price reaction to the inventory report was because the market is paying more attention to the build-up in stocks at Cushing, Okla., the delivery hub for Nymex crude contacts, he said. Stocks at Cushing rose by 1.5 million barrels last week to 34 million barrels, the EIA reported.
"But we're in year-end trading here. Volume is thin, so the market's going to trade in a pretty sloppy way," Kissler added.
Write to Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-29-23 1415ET
