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A week after reporting a massive crude oil inventory build of over 21 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration had another unpleasant surprise for inventory watchers: the authority reported an inventory build of 13.8 million barrels for the week to March 5. A draw in gasoline stocks and another one in distillates, however, offset the negative news.

A day earlier, the American Petroleum Institute reported an estimated crude oil inventory build of as much as 12.79 million barrels for the week to March 5, versus analyst expectations of a modest increase to the tune of 816,000 barrels.

Expectations for the EIA estimate were for an 833,000-barrel decline in crude oil inventories. In gasoline, the EIA reported an inventory decline of 11.9 million barrels, which compared with a decline of 13.6 million barrels estimated for the previous week. Gasoline production averaged 9 million barrels daily, compared with 8.3 million bpd a week earlier.

In distillate fuels, the authority estimated an inventory draw of 5.5 million barrels for the week to March 5. This compared with a decline of 9.7 million barrels for the previous week. Middle distillate production averaged 3.7 million bpd last week, versus 2.9 million bpd a week earlier. Refineries processed 12.3 million bpd last week, operating at 69 percent of capacity, amid the resumption of normal operation following the Texas Freeze that led to outages and shutdowns.