Crude Oil Posts 52-Week Low Before Inventory Report

Total gasoline inventories decreased by 4 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 8.8 million barrels a day for the past four weeks, down by 0.5% compared with the same period a year ago.

Distillate inventories decreased by 1.5 million barrels last week and remain in the lower half of the average range. Distillate product supplied averaged about 3.8 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 0.7% when compared with the same period last year. Distillate production averaged 4.6 million barrels a day last week, down 100,000 barrels a day from the prior week’s production.

Wednesday evening, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported that crude inventories rose by 10.2 million barrels in the week ending October 10, together with a decline of 3.1 million barrels in gasoline supplies and a decline of 200,000 barrels in distillate supplies. For the same period, analysts had estimated an increase of 2.2 million barrels in crude inventories, a drop of 1.4 million barrels in the gasoline supply and a decline of 1.7 million barrels in distillate inventories.

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Before the EIA report, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was trading down about 0.4% at around $80.65 a barrel, after posting a new 52-week low of $79.10 earlier Thursday morning. The WTI price slipped further to around $80.20 immediately after the report was released.

For the past week, crude imports averaged over 7.7 million barrels a day, up about 28,000 barrels a day compared with the previous week. Refineries were running at 88.1% of capacity, with daily input of about 15.3 million barrels a day, about 300,000 barrels a day below the previous week’s average.

WTI crude prices have tumbled more than $5 a barrel since last week. Refinery throughput has dropped for a third straight week and pump prices continue to fall with diminishing consumer demand. The large inventory increase was not unexpected, so the price did not take as big a hit as it might have.

According to AAA, the current national average pump price per gallon of regular gasoline is $3.163, down from $3.254 a week ago and from $3.381 a month ago. Last year a gallon of regular cost $3.357 on average in the United States.

Here is a look at how share prices at three U.S. producers reacted to this latest report.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) traded down about 0.2%, at $90.04 in a 52-week range of $86.84 to $104.76.

Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) traded up about 0.2%, at $109.49 in a 52-week range of $106.65 to $135.10.

Continental Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLR) traded up about 0.8% to $54.29. The stock’s 52-week range is $50.13 to $80.91. Continental is the largest producer in the Bakken shale play.

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