Total gasoline inventories increased by 1 million barrels last week and have moved into the middle of the five-year average range. Total motor gasoline supplied (the EIA’s measure of consumption) averaged 9.1 million barrels a day for the past four weeks, down by 0.2% compared with the same period a year ago.
Distillate inventories decreased by 2.1 million barrels last week and remain near the lower limit of the average range. Distillate product supplied averaged about 3.8 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down by 9.7% when compared with the same period last year. Distillate production averaged over 4.8 million barrels a day last week, roughly flat with the prior week’s production.
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Tuesday evening the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported that crude inventories rose by 3.7 million barrels in the week ending November 14. For the same period, analysts polled by Platts estimated a decrease 660,000 barrels in crude inventories, a rise of 600,000 barrels in gasoline inventories, and a decline of 1.2 million barrels in distillate supplies.
Before the EIA report Wednesday morning, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for December delivery was trading up fractionally at around $74.60 a barrel. The price dropped to around $74.50 immediately after the report was released.
For the past week, crude imports averaged over 7.6 million barrels a day, up by 761,000 barrels a day compared with the previous week. Refineries were running at 91.2% of capacity, with daily input of about 15.9 million barrels a day, about 161,000 barrels a day above the previous week’s average.
Crude prices are getting beaten up following more comments from the Saudis that they will not interfere with the market and a projection from the EIA that gasoline prices will average below $3 a gallon in 2015. There is not much support for oil prices now, and there’s no sign of an imminent turnaround barring some geopolitical event that could threaten supply.
According to AAA, the current national average pump price per gallon of regular gasoline is $2.863, down from $2.923 a week ago and from $3.113 a month ago. Last year a gallon of regular cost $3.209 on average in the United States.
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The United States Oil ETF (NYSEMKT: USO) traded up about 0.1%, at $28.16 in a 52-week range of $28.10 to $39.44. The low was set Wednesday morning.
The Market Vectors Oil Services ETF (NYSEMKT: OIH) traded down about 1.5%, at $42.78 in a 52-week range of $40.98 to $58.01.
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