USA Crude Oil Inventories Drop Almost 4MM Barrels WoW

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 3.7 million barrels from the week ending July 26 to the week ending August 2, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest weekly petroleum status report.

Crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 429.3 million barrels on August 2, 433.0 million barrels on July 26, and 445.6 million barrels on August 4, 2023, the report showed. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 375.8 million barrels on August 2, 375.1 million barrels on July 26, and 347.8 million barrels on August 4, 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 1.666 billion barrels on August 2, the report showed. This figure was up 1.9 million barrels week on week and up 45.1 million barrels year on year, the report outlined.

“At 429.3 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about six percent below the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA noted in the report.

“Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 1.3 million barrels from last week and are about two percent below the five year average for this time of year. Finished gasoline inventories increased, while blending components inventories decreased last week,” it added.

“Distillate fuel inventories increased by 0.9 million barrels last week and are about six percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories increased by 0.5 million barrels from last week and are 13 percent above the five year average for this time of year,” it continued.

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.4 million barrels per day during the week ending August 2, the report stated, highlighting that this was 252,000 barrels per day more than the previous week’s average.

“Refineries operated at 90.5 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the EIA said in the report.

“Gasoline production increased last week, averaging 10.0 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production increased last week, averaging 5.0 million barrels per day,” it added.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.2 million barrels per day last week, according to the report, which pointed out that this figure decreased by 729,000 barrels per day from the previous week.

“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.8 million barrels per day, 0.7 percent more than the same four-week period last year,” the EIA said in the report.

“Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 630,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 115,000 barrels per day,” it added.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.3 million barrels a day, down by 2.0 percent from the same period last year, the EIA stated in the report.

“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 9.1 million barrels a day, up by 1.5 percent from the same period last year,” it noted.

“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.7 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down by 2.2 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was down 1.2 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” the EIA continued.

In an oil and gas report sent to Rigzone late Monday by the Macquarie team, prior to the release of the EIA’s report, strategists at Macquarie revealed that they were forecasting that U.S. crude inventories would be up by 0.6 million barrels for the week ending August 2.

“This compares to our early look for the week which anticipated a 1.8 million barrel build, and a 3.4 million barrel draw realized for the week ending July 26,” the strategists stated in the report.

In a market analysis sent to Rigzone on August 7, Antonio Ernesto Di Giacomo, a Senior Market Analyst at XS.com, highlighted that the oil market was “eagerly awaiting the official [EIA] oil inventory report”.

“This report will provide a clearer view of the current state of reserves and could offer clues about the future direction of prices,” Giacomo said in the analysis.

“Analysts will be closely watching the figures and any signs of change in current trends, as the official report is often considered a key indicator for investment strategies and business decisions in the energy sector,” he added.

Source: www.rigzone.com