The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its weekly petroleum status report Wednesday morning. U.S. commercial crude inventories decreased by 3.2 million barrels last week, maintaining a total U.S. commercial crude inventory of 532.5 million barrels. The commercial crude inventory remains at historically high levels for this time of year, according to the EIA.
Tuesday evening the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported that crude inventories fell by 3.6 million barrels in the week ending June 3. API also reported gasoline supplies rose by 760,000 barrels and distillate stockpiles rose by 270,000 barrels. For the same period, analysts had estimated a decrease of around 3.1 million barrels in crude inventories, along with a decline of 500,000 barrels in gasoline supplies and a 300,000-barrel decline in distillates.
Total gasoline inventories increased by 1 million barrels last week, according to the EIA, and remain well above the upper limit of the five-year average range. Total motor gasoline supplied (the agency’s measure of consumption) averaged over 9.6 million barrels a day for the past four weeks, up by 2.6% compared with the same period a year ago.
Now that benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil has broken through the $50 barrier, onshore producers will be paying attention to how long it stays there. We noted last week that several companies would like to see prices at or above $50 for at least a quarter before returning to drilling.
At the $50 price, barrels become profitable in the “sweet spots” of many onshore regions. The Permian Basin is the best example, and last week’s rig count showed that the drillers in the Permian added five rigs, three in Texas and two in New Mexico.
On Tuesday the EIA estimated that production is down by 1 million barrels a day in the United States as of the end of April. The agency also expects prices to average less than $43 a barrel for WTI this year, rising to around $51 next year.
Before the EIA report, WTI crude for July delivery traded up nearly 1.6% at around $51.15 a barrel and slipped to around $50.85 shortly after the report’s release. WTI crude settled at $50.36 on Tuesday. The 52-week range on July futures is $31.61 to $63.77.
Distillate inventories increased by 1.8 million barrels last week and also remain well above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year. Distillate product supplied averaged about 4 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 0.4% when compared with the same period last year. Distillate production averaged about 4.8 million barrels a day last week, essentially flat with the prior week.
For the past week, crude imports averaged 7.7 million barrels a day, down by about 134,000 barrels a day compared with the previous week. Refineries were running at 90.9% of capacity, with daily input averaging over 16.4 million barrels, about 211,000 barrels a day more than the previous week’s average.
According to AAA, the current national average pump price per gallon of regular gasoline is $2.356, up from $2.22 a week ago and up more than 14 cents compared with the month-ago price. Last year at this time, a gallon of regular gasoline cost $2.75 on average in the United States.
Here is a look at how share prices for two blue-chip stocks and two exchange traded funds reacted to this latest report.
Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) traded up about 0.4%, at $91.04 in a 52-week range of $66.55 to $91.30, a new high posted Wednesday morning. Over the past 12 months, Exxon stock has traded up about 6.9% and is down about 12% since August 2014, as of Tuesday’s close.
Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) traded up about 0.5%, at $103.85 in a 52-week range of $69.58 to $104.26. As of Tuesday’s close, Chevron shares have added about 2.9% over the past 12 months and trade down about 22.6% since August 2014.
The United States Oil ETF (NYSEMKT: USO) traded up about 1.4%, at $12.39 in a 52-week range of $7.67 to $20.80.
The Market Vectors Oil Services ETF (NYSEMKT: OIH) traded up about 1% to $30.96, in a 52-week range of $20.46 to $38.00.
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