Crude Oil Inventories Rise, but Prices Follow

By Paul Ausick Updated Apr 27, 7:45PM EDT · Published Jun 25, 11:25AM 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 increased by 1.7 million barrels last week, maintaining a total U.S. commercial crude inventory of 388.1 million barrels, and remain in the upper half of the five-year range for this time of the year.

Total gasoline inventories increased by 700,000 barrels last week and remain in the upper half of the five-year average range. Total motor gasoline supplied (the EIA’s measure of consumption) averaged 9 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up about 1.7% over the same period a year ago.

Distillate inventories rose by 400,000 barrels last week and remain below the lower limit of the average range. Distillate product supplied averaged more than 4 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 2.5% when compared with the same period last year. Distillate production averaged 4.7 million barrels a day last week, about 200,000 barrels below the prior week’s production.

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Tuesday evening, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported that crude inventories rose by 4 million barrels in the week ending June 20, together with a rise of 2.2 million barrels in gasoline supplies and a drop of 250,000 barrels in distillate supplies. For the same period, analysts estimated a decrease of 2.2 million barrels in crude inventories, a rise of 2 million barrels in gasoline inventories and a rise of 1 million barrels in distillate inventories.

Before the EIA report, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was trading down at around $105.85 a barrel, about 0.2% below Tuesday’s closing price of $106.05. The WTI price fell further to around $105.65 a barrel shortly after the report was released. Within 20 minutes of the report’s release, however, crude had moved back above $106 a barrel.

For the past week, crude imports averaged more than 7.3 million barrels a day, up by 107,000 barrels a day over the previous week. Refineries were running at 88.5% of capacity, with daily input of more than 15.7 million barrels a day, up 275,000 barrels a day compared with the previous week’s average.

The situation in Iraq has lost its position as a leading driver of higher crude prices. The issue now will be the movement toward exporting near-crude, or shall we call it lightly refined crude. Rising inventories of gasoline and diesel fuel should also help moderate prices

According to AAA, the current national average pump price per gallon of regular gasoline is $3.681, up from $3.669 a week ago and from $3.656 a month ago. Last year a gallon of regular cost $3.554 on average in the United States.

ALSO READ: EIA Predicts Higher Gas and Crude Oil Prices

Here is a look at how share prices at three U.S. producers reacted to Wednesday’s report.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) traded down 0.7% at $101.99, in a 52-week range of $84.79 to $104.61.

Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) traded flat at $131.77, in a 52-week range of $109.27 to $133.57.

Continental Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLR) traded up about 1.6% to $153.95, in a 52-week range of $83.71 to $158.10. Continental is the largest producer in the Bakken Shale play.

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.