The ICE Brent/WTI spread widened during mid-morning trading as a steep decline in refinery utilization weighed on US crude oil futures. Receive daily email alerts, subscriber notes & personalize your experience. Register Now Total US refinery capacity dropped by 5 percentage points to 90.4% during the week ended 21 September, according to US Energy Information Administration data. The decline in refinery runs exceeded analyst expectations of a 0.6 percentage point decline, and capacity was at its lowest level since early-March 2018. Lower-than-expected refinery runs are bearish for WTI relative to Brent, and the Ice Brent/WTI spread jumped to $9.81/b following the EIA release. ICE November Brent was down 27 cents at $81.60/b and NYMEX November WTI was 39 cents lower at $71.89/b. Total commercial crude inventories climbed 1.85 million barrels to 395.99 million barrels during the week ended 21 September, EIA said. The build ran counter […]