Crude Oil Inventory Jumps by 9 Million Barrels

Total gasoline inventories decreased by 2.6 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 8.9 million barrels a day for the past four weeks, up by 8% compared with the same period a year ago.

Distillate inventories decreased by 3.9 million barrels last week and remain in the lower half of the average range. Distillate product supplied averaged 4 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 5.6% when compared with the same period last year. Distillate production averaged 4.7 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 rose by 12.7 million barrels, gasoline stockpiles had dropped by 5 million barrels and distillate stocks fell by 670,000 barrels in the week ending January 23. For the same period, analysts had estimated an increase of 4.1 million barrels in crude inventories and a rise of 400,000 barrels in gasoline stockpiles.

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Before the EIA report, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for March delivery was trading down about 3% at around $44.80 a barrel Wednesday morning. The WTI price inched up to around $44.90 (down about 2.9% for the day) immediately after the report was released. The 52-week range on WTI futures is $44.35 to $100.52.

For the past week, crude imports averaged 7.4 million barrels a day, up by 204,000 barrels a day compared with the previous week. Refineries were running at 88% of capacity, with daily input of 15.3 million barrels, about 374,000 barrels a day above the previous week’s average.

Another steep increase in crude oil inventories is likely to increase the pricing pressure on crude. Refinery utilization ticked back up last week, but gasoline inventories are slipping.

The sharp rises in inventories of crude oil, gasoline and distillates virtually guarantee that prices have nowhere to go but down. Refinery utilization was down again last week as the posted price for WTI crude ended the week at $44.75. The price had dropped to $42.25 as of Tuesday morning.

According to AAA, the current national average pump price per gallon of regular gasoline is $2.038, down from $2.048 a week ago and from $2.297 a month ago. Last year a gallon of regular cost $3.279 on average in the United States. The weekly price drops are slowing sharply now, and we might be seeing prices stabilize before trending back up as the spring turnaround begins at U.S. refineries.

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

The United States Oil ETF (NYSEMKT: USO) traded down about 1.7%, at $16.91 in a 52-week range of $16.67 to $39.44.

The Market Vectors Oil Services ETF (NYSEMKT: OIH) traded down about 2.9%, at $33.45 in a 52-week range of $31.63 to $58.01.