US Petroleum Inventories Fall, Imports Rise

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its weekly petroleum status report this morning. US commercial crude inventories fell by 1.2 million barrels last week, bringing the total US commercial crude inventory to 346.3 million barrels, around the upper limit of the five-year range for this time of the year.

A Platts survey provided a consensus estimate for a weekly inventory gain of 2.1 million barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute had noted an inventory drop of 1.4 million barrels. The inventory drop is still likely to push futures prices higher today.

Total gasoline inventories fell by 1.2 million barrels last week and remain in the upper limit of the five-year average range. Over the last four weeks, gasoline supplied has declined by -7.8% compared to the same period last year. Total motor gasoline supplied averaged 8.4 million barrels/day for the four weeks.

For the past week, crude imports averaged 8.2 million barrels/day, up by 492,000 barrels/day from the previous week. Refineries were running at 82.2% of capacity, with daily input of nearly 14.4 million barrels/day, down by 100,000 barrels/day from the previous week.

Lower inventories and the decline in gasoline supplied indicate both that demand continues to fall in the US and the start of the spring turnaround at US refineries.

According to gasbuddy.com, US gasoline prices average $3.844/gallon today, compared with a pump price of $3.782 a week ago.

Paul Ausick