Crude Supply Up Slightly, Gasoline Inventory Soars Again

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its weekly petroleum status report this morning. US commercial crude inventories increased by 800,000 barrels last week, bringing the total US commercial crude inventory to 372.6 million barrels, still well above the upper limit of the five-year range for this time of the year.

Total gasoline inventories rose by 5 million barrels last week and remain in the upper half of the five-year average range. Total motor gasoline supplied averaged 8.5 million barrels a day over the past four weeks — a decline of 1.3% compared with the same period a year ago.

Distillate inventories jumped by 3 million barrels again last week, but still remain well below the lower limit of the average range. Distillate product supplied averaged more than 3.8 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down 0.7% when compared with the same period last year. Distillate production totaled nearly 4.8 million barrels a day last week, down slightly compared with the prior week.

Platts estimated a drawdown of 2.5 million barrels in crude inventories. The American Petroleum Institute reported an inventory build of 4.27 million barrels in crude supplies last week, while gasoline inventories rose by 2.76 million barrels. Dow Jones estimated a crude inventory decline of 2.1 million barrels, coupled with a rise of 1.8 million barrels in gasoline stocks and a rise of 1.1 million barrels to distillate stocks.

Crude prices were higher before the EIA report at $86.87 a barrel and have retreated slightly since.

For the past week, crude imports averaged 8.5 million barrels a day, an increase of about 269,000 barrels a day from the previous week. Refineries were running at 90.4% of capacity, with daily input of 15.4 million barrels a day, about 62,000 barrels a day less than the previous week.

The United States Oil ETF (NYSEMKT: USO) is up 0.7% at $31.68 in a 52-week range of $29.02 to $42.30.

The United States Gasoline ETF (NYSEMKT: UGA) is up about 1.1% at $55.84. The 52-week range is $45.13 to $62.13.

Paul Ausick