Crude Price Slammed on Another Huge Inventory Build

This report will stoke worries that U.S. storage tanks will soon be overflowing and that crude prices will decline even further. In reality there is little danger that this will happen soon, if ever. We noted earlier this week that about 200 million barrels of storage is still available. The empty tanks may not be in Cushing, Okla., but no producer is going to have to stop, and we do not have to worry about dumping excess crude on the ground.

Total gasoline inventories decreased by 4.5 million barrels last week, but they remain well above the upper limit of the five-year average range. Total motor gasoline supplied (the EIA’s measure of consumption) averaged over 8.8 million barrels a day for the past four weeks, up by 2.7% compared with the same period a year ago.

Distillate inventories increased by 400,000 barrels last week, but remain in the lower half of the average range. Distillate product supplied averaged 4 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 5.6% when compared with the year-ago period. Distillate production averaged over 4.8 million barrels a day last week, roughly flat compared with the prior week’s production.

Tuesday evening the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported that crude inventories rose by 10.5 million barrels, gasoline inventories fell by 583,000 barrels and distillate inventories also fell by 252,000 barrels in the week ending March 13. For the same period, analysts had estimated an increase of 4.1 million barrels in crude inventories, a drop of 900,000 barrels in gasoline stockpiles and a decline of 500,000 barrels in distillate inventories.

Before the EIA report, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for April delivery was trading down about 2% at around $42.60 a barrel Wednesday morning. The WTI price dipped to around $42.20 (down about 3% for the day) immediately after the report was released. The 52-week range on WTI futures is $42.05 to $99.53, and the low was set early Wednesday morning.

For the past week, crude imports averaged 7.5 million barrels a day, up by 753,000 barrels a day compared with the previous week. Refineries were running at 88.1% of capacity, with daily input of more than 15.4 million barrels, about 136,000 barrels a day above the previous week’s average.

According to AAA, the current national average pump price per gallon of regular gasoline is $2.419, down from $2.447 a week ago but up from $2.268 a month ago. Last year a gallon of regular cost $3.524 on average in the United States. Gasoline price declines are once again tracking the drop in crude oil prices.

Here is a look at how share prices for two exchange traded funds reacted to this latest report.

The United States Oil ETF (NYSEMKT: USO) traded down about 1.3%, at $15.76 in a 52-week range of $15.61 to $39.44. The low was set earlier in the day.

The Market Vectors Oil Services ETF (NYSEMKT: OIH) traded down about 0.3%, at $31.92 in a 52-week range of $31.51 to $58.01.