Crude Oil Price Slips as Supplies Continue to Surge

Total gasoline inventories decreased by 3.1 barrels last week and remain above the upper limit of the five-year average range. Total motor gasoline supplied (the EIA’s measure of consumption) averaged over 8.6 million barrels a day for the past four weeks, up by 3.3% compared with the same period a year ago.

Distillate inventories decreased by 2.7 million barrels last week and remain in the lower half of the average range. Distillate product supplied averaged over 4.1 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 11.2% when compared with the same period last year. Distillate production averaged over 4.7 million barrels a day last week, up about 100,000 barrels a day compared with the prior week’s production.

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Tuesday evening the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported that crude inventories rose by 8.9 million barrels in the week ending February 20. For the same period, analysts had estimated an increase of 4.7 million barrels in crude inventories, a drop of 1.1 million barrels in gasoline stockpiles and a decline of 3.3 million barrels in distillate inventories.

Before the EIA report, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for April delivery was trading down fractionally at around $49.20 a barrel Wednesday morning. The WTI price dipped to around $49.00 (down about 0.6% for the day) immediately after the report was released. The 52-week range on WTI futures is $44.37 to $99.53.

For the past week, crude imports averaged 7.3 million barrels a day, up by 174,000 barrels a day compared with the previous week. Refineries were running at 87.4% of capacity, with daily input of more than 15.2 million barrels, about 199,000 barrels a day above the previous week’s average.

Crude prices rose to around $53 a barrel last Thursday but have been trending down ever since as production estimates from U.S. exploration and production companies show no signs of falling.

The drop in refinery utilization is due to seasonal maintenance and turnaround, and it continues to depress demand for crude, if only temporarily.

The United Steelworkers Union strike at 15 refineries and chemical plants has so far had little impact on refining.

A shutdown of Libya’s largest oil field on Tuesday was due to a power failure and should be short-lived.

President Obama’s expected veto of legislation calling for an immediate start on construction of the Keystone XL pipeline had virtually no impact on crude prices Tuesday.

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According to AAA, the current national average pump price per gallon of regular gasoline is $2.328, up from $2.268 a week ago and from $2.035 a month ago. Last year a gallon of regular cost $3.426 on average in the United States. Gasoline pump prices remain under $2 a gallon in only two states: Utah and Idaho.

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

The United States Oil ETF (NYSEMKT: USO) traded up about 0.3%, at $18.09 in a 52-week range of $16.30 to $39.44.

The Market Vectors Oil Services ETF (NYSEMKT: OIH) traded down about 0.4%, at $35.06 in a 52-week range of $31.63 to $58.01.