Crude Oil Loses All of Daily Gain Following Inventory Report

Total gasoline inventories increased by 8.1 million barrels last week and remain well above the upper limit of the five-year average range. Total motor gasoline supplied (the EIA’s measure of consumption) averaged more than 9.3 million barrels a day for the past four weeks, up by 5.5% compared with the same period a year ago.

Distillate inventories increased by 11.2 million barrels last week, but they remain in the lower half of the average range. Distillate product supplied averaged more than 3.9 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 7.2% when compared with the same period last year. Distillate production averaged 5.2 million barrels a day last week, about 100,000 barrels a day less than the prior week’s production.

Tuesday evening the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported that crude inventories fell by 4 million barrels in the week ending January 2. Gasoline inventories rose 6.9 million barrels in the week, according to API. For the same period, analysts surveyed by Platts had estimated an increase of 380,000 barrels in crude inventories, 2.25 million barrels of gasoline and 2.1 million barrels of distillates.

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Before the EIA report, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for February delivery was trading up nearly 2% at around $48.95 a barrel Wednesday morning. The WTI price slipped to around $47.90 (down about 0.2% for the day) immediately after the report was released. Crude set a 52-week low of $46.83 in electronic trading on the NYMEX earlier in the morning. The 52-week high is $101.33.

For the past week, crude imports averaged 6.9 million barrels a day, down by 205,000 barrels a day compared with the previous week. Refineries were running at 93.9% of capacity, with daily input of more than 16.4 million barrels a day, about 43,000 barrels a day above the previous week’s average.

The huge jump in gasoline supplies is likely to weigh on the crude price, even though the crude inventory dropped by more than 3 million barrels. That drop is just not enough to declare that demand is growing again. The WTI posted price at Plains Marketing was just $44.50 a barrel Tuesday, while the price for Williston Basin Sweet (Bakken) fell to $31.69 a barrel. The EIA report does not indicate any shortage of barrels, and the market price indicates a continuing surplus.

According to AAA, the current national average pump price per gallon of regular gasoline is $2.191, down from $2.257 a week ago and from $2.679 a month ago. Last year a gallon of regular cost $3.314 on average in the United States.

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Here is a look at how share prices for two exchange traded funds reacting to this latest report.

The United States Oil ETF (NYSEMKT: USO) traded up about 0.3%, at $18.12 in a 52-week range of $18.00 to $39.44. The low was set earlier in the morning.

The Market Vectors Oil Services ETF (NYSEMKT: OIH) also traded down, about 0.4% to $33.86, in a 52-week range of $33.54 to $58.01.