Crude Oil, Gasoline Inventories Rise Sharply

By Paul Ausick Updated Apr 27, 7:44PM EDT · Published Jan 9, 10:41AM EST

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its weekly petroleum status report this morning. US commercial crude inventories increased by 1.3 million barrels last week, bringing the total US commercial crude inventory to 361.3 million barrels, well above the upper limit of the five-year range for this time of the year.

Total gasoline inventories rose by 7.4 million barrels last week and remain well above the upper limit of the five-year average range. Total motor gasoline supplied averaged about 8.4 million barrels a day over the past four weeks — a decline of 2.3% compared with the same period a year ago.

Distillate inventories rose by a whopping 6.8 million barrels last week, are near the lower limit of the average range. Distillate product supplied averaged just less than 3.6 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down 5% when compared with the same period last year. Distillate production totaled 4.9 million barrels a day last week, up 300,000 barrels compared with the prior week and below the five-year average range for this time of year.

The American Petroleum Institute reported an inventory increase of 2.4 million barrels in crude supplies last week. Platts estimated a build of 1.1 million barrels in crude inventories for last week, with a build of 2.6 million barrels in gasoline supplies and a rise of 1.5 million barrels in distillate supplies.

Crude prices were about 0.4% higher before the EIA report at $93.48 a barrel and fell slightly following the report. Crude prices rose have hovered around $93 a barrel following the fiscal cliff deal.

For the past week, crude imports averaged over 8.3 million barrels a day, an increase of about 1.2 million barrels a day from the previous week. Refineries were running at 89.1% of capacity, with daily input of 15.3 million barrels a day, about 84,000 barrels a day less than the previous week.

The United States Oil ETF (NYSEMKT: USO) is down 0.2% at $33.88 in a 52-week range of $29.02 to $42.30.

The United States Gasoline ETF (NYSEMKT: UGA) is down 1% at $58.43. The 52-week range is $45.13 to $62.13.

About the Author Paul Ausick →

Paul Ausick has been writing for a673b.bigscoots-temp.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.

He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.