US crude Oil inventories fell unexpectedly sharply by 9.3 million barrels last week, according to the US Department of Energy, Commerzbank's commodity analyst Carsten Fritsch notes.

US distillate stocks continue to rise

"The decline in inventories was almost three times larger than reported by the API the previous day. Participants in a Bloomberg survey had even expected a slight increase in stocks. The steep decline in crude Oil stocks was due to a slump in net crude Oil imports by more than 3 million to just 415,000 barrels per day, the lowest level since the start of the data series."

"This was mainly due to a sharp rise in crude Oil exports. US gasoline stocks fell by 2.35 million barrels, which also exceeded the inventory draw reported by the API. US distillate stocks, on the other hand, rose by a good 4 million barrels, which was stronger than expected and reported by the API."

"Since the low at the beginning of July, US distillate stocks have risen by more than 20 million barrels. The negative deviation of stocks from the 5-year average subsequently decreased to 7%. In July, it had still been more than 20%. The situation on the market for middle distillates is thus easing noticeably."