USA Crude Oil Inventories Drop by Nearly 5MM Barrels WoW

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 4.9 million barrels from the week ending July 5 to the week ending July 12, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest weekly petroleum status report.

Crude oil stocks in the U.S., not including the SPR, were at 440.2 million barrels on July 12, 445.1 million barrels on July 5, and 457.4 million barrels on July 14, 2023, the report showed. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 373.7 million barrels on July 12, 373.1 million barrels on July 5, and 346.8 million barrels on July 14, 2023, the report revealed.

Total petroleum stocks in the U.S. – including crude oil, total motor gasoline, fuel ethanol, kerosene type jet fuel, distillate fuel oil, residual fuel oil, propane/propylene, and other oils – stood at 1.669 billion barrels on July 14, the report highlighted. This figure was up 11.1 million barrels week on week and up 46.0 million barrels year on year, the report outlined.

“At 440.2 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about five percent below the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA said in its latest report.

“Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 3.3 million barrels from last week and are slightly above the five year average for this time of year. Finished gasoline inventories decreased, while blending components inventories increased last week,” it added.

“Distillate fuel inventories increased by 3.5 million barrels last week and are about seven percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories increased by 4.6 million barrels from last week and are 16 percent above the five year average for this time of year,” it continued.

In its latest report, the EIA noted that U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.9 million barrels per day during the week ending July 12. This was 181,000 barrels per day less than the previous week’s average, according to the EIA, which highlighted in the report that refineries operated at 93.7 percent of their operable capacity last week.

“Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.5 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production increased last week, averaging 5.2 million barrels per day,” the EIA said in the report.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 7.0 million barrels per day last week, according to the EIA, which outlined that this figure increased by 277,000 barrels per day from the previous week.

“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.7 million barrels per day, 1.1 percent more than the same four-week period last year,” the EIA noted in the report.

“Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 728,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 108,000 barrels per day,” it added.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.5 million barrels a day, the EIA stated in its latest weekly petroleum status report. This figure was up by 1.2 percent from the same period last year, according to the EIA.

“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 9.1 million barrels a day, up by 0.2 percent from the same period last year,” the EIA said in the report.

“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.6 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 3.9 percent from the same period last year,” it added.

“Jet fuel product supplied was up 0.7 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it continued.

In a report sent to Rigzone on Wednesday, prior to the release of the EIA’s latest report, Macquarie strategists revealed that they were forecasting that U.S. crude inventories would be up by 1.3 million barrels for the week ending July 12.

“This compares to a 3.4 million barrel draw for the week ending July 5, with the total U.S. crude balance yet again realizing modestly tighter than we had anticipated last week,” the strategists said in the report.

“For this week, from refineries, we model crude runs down significantly (-0.5 million barrels per day). Among net imports, we model a small nominal increase, with exports moderately lower on a nominal basis (-0.4 million barrels per day) and imports slightly lower (-0.2 million barrels per day),” they added.

“Timing of cargoes remains a source of potential volatility in this week’s crude balance. From implied domestic supply (prod.+adj.+transfers), we look for little change this week. Rounding out the picture, we anticipate a slightly larger increase in SPR inventory (+0.6 million barrels) on the week,” the strategists went on to state.

The Macquarie strategists also noted in the report that, at Cushing, their refinery/pipeline model was calling for a draw of 0.45 million barrels.

“Among products, we look for a small draw in gasoline (-0.5 million barrels), with builds in distillate (+0.6 million barrels) and jet (+1.4 million barrels). We model implied demand for these three products at ~14.5 million barrels per day for the week ending July 12,” they added in the report.

Source: www.rigzone.com