Huge Drop in Crude Inventories Threatens Holiday Gasoline Prices

By Paul Ausick Updated Apr 27, 11:20PM EDT · Published May 21, 11:05AM EDT

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The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its weekly petroleum status report Wednesday morning. U.S. commercial crude inventories decreased by 7.2 million barrels last week, maintaining a total U.S. commercial crude inventory to 391.3 million barrels, which is near the upper limit of the five-year range for this time of the year.

Total gasoline inventories increased by a million barrels last week and remain in the middle of the five-year average range. Total motor gasoline supplied (the EIA’s measure of consumption) averaged more than 8.9 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up about 5.3% over the same period a year ago.

Distillate inventories rose by 3.4 million barrels last week, and they remain below the lower limit of the average range. Distillate product supplied averaged 4.1 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 7.7% when compared with the same period of last year. Distillate production averaged 5 million barrels a day last week, about 100,000 barrels a day above the prior week’s production.

Tuesday evening, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported that crude inventories fell by a startling 10.3 million barrels in the week ending May 16, together with a rise of 135,000 barrels in gasoline supplies and a rise of 1.36 million barrels in distillate supplies. For the same period, Platts estimated a decline of 300,000 barrels in crude inventories, a rise of 135,000 barrels in gasoline inventories and a drop of 250,000 barrels in distillate inventories.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude prices opened at $102.96 on Wednesday and traded up about 0.9% before the EIA report at around $103.30 a barrel. The WTI price remained mostly unchanged shortly after the report was released.

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For the past week, crude imports averaged 6.5 barrels million a day, down about 658,000 barrels a day from the previous week. Refineries were running at 88.7% of capacity, with daily input of 15.9 million barrels a day, up 282,000 barrels compared with the previous week’s average.

The sharp drop in crude inventories is offset somewhat by the sharp rise in distillate production. U.S. refiners are producing more diesel fuel and other distillates for export. Crude imports were also down sharply last week, and crude oil stockpiles in Cushing, Okla., are down 261,000 barrels to 23.22 million barrels, about half the storage capacity at the NYMEX contract delivery point.

According to AAA, the current national average pump price per gallon of regular gasoline is $3.642, the same as a week ago and down from $3.669 a month ago. Last year a gallon of regular cost $3.654 on average in the United States.

Here is a look at how share prices at three U.S. producers are reacting to the most recent report.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) traded up about 0.6%, at $101.31 in a 52-week range of $84.79 to $103.45.

Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) traded up about 0.7%, at $123.37 in a 52-week range of $109.27 to $127.83.

Continental Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLR) traded up about 2.6%, at $138.11 in a 52-week range of $80.44 to $138.78. Continental is the largest producer in the Bakken shale play.

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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.