Oil Soars on Cocktail of US Pipeline Closure, Gasoline Squeeze and Inflation Spike

By Barani Krishnan and Liz Moyer

Investing.com — Oil markets edged higher for a fourth day in a row on Wednesday as the gasoline price at U.S. pumps hit seven-year highs of around $3 per gallon and the government reported that inflation was roaring at levels last seen in 2008.

The combined concerns over tight fuel supplies and upward price pressures made traders almost completely ignore a smaller-than-expected drop in weekly crude supplies and the first production build estimated in two months.

New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for U.S. crude, settled up 80 cents, or 1.2%, at $66.08 per barrel. WTI is up almost 1.4% on the week.

London-traded Brent, the global benchmark for crude, finished up 77 cents, or 1.1%, at $69.32.

Gasoline futures settled up 21 cents, or 1%, at $2.16 per gallon.

The run-up in crude prices came as U.S. oil industry executives pleaded with Americans not to hoard fuel, saying there would be adequate gasoline for all without the panic buying that has broken out with the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline, country’s largest fuel delivery system.

Colonial delivers about 45 percent of the fuel consumed on the US East Coast. Its shutdown since Friday due to a cyberattack has left many fuel stations in the region without supply, forcing motorists to hunt for gasoline anywhere they could find. The operator of the pipeline said on Wednesday it has begun the process of restarting the network.

Prior to that announcement, there were reports of people trying to fill their tanks even when they had adequate supply, causing massive long lines at pumps that were still working. At least one media image showed a plastic bag hanging over the nozzle at a pump, prompting the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to tweet: "Do not fill plastic bags with gasoline. Use only containers approved for fuel."

Earlier in the day, the Labor Department reported that the U.S. Consumer Price Index grew by 4.2% over a one-year period in April for its largest increase in almost 13 years, confirming a huge tick up in inflation after months of commodity price increases in an economy rapidly recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.

“After digesting a larger-than-expected inflation report, crude prices pushed higher despite a stronger dollar as expectations grow that global crude demand recovery will be very strong in the second half of the year,” said Ed Moya, analyst at online broking portal OANDA.  

“The path for crude prices appears to be higher but until the situation improves in India, WTI will probably struggle to break above the early March high.”

India, the world’s third largest oil buyer facing carnage from the coronavirus, might have a virus variant that could be more infectious than the original Covid-19, the World Health Organization warned. 

Earlier on Wednesday, the Energy Information Administration reported a smaller-than-expected decline in crude stockpiles.

Crude oil inventories fell 427,000 barrels last week, compared with analysts' expectations for a draw of 2.817 million barrels.

 Gasoline inventories rose 378,000 barrels last week the EIA said, compared with expectations for a draw of 600,000 barrels.

U.S. crude exports, meanwhile, fell to 1.8 million barrels per day last week from a record 4.1 million bpd in the previous week. 

Crude production rose by an estimated 100,000 barrels daily, returning to the 11 million barrels per day mark for the first time in two months, the EIA said.

The only positive number in the weekly dataset was in distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil. This fell 1.733 million barrels in the week against expectations for a draw of 1.080 million barrels.

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