Tuesday evening the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported that crude inventories fell by 3.1 million barrels in the week ending September 11. For the same period, analysts surveyed by Platts had estimated a decrease of 200,000 barrels in crude inventories.
Total gasoline inventories increased by 2.8 million barrels last week according to the EIA, and have moved into the upper half of the five-year average range. Total motor gasoline supplied (the agency’s measure of consumption) averaged about 9.2 million barrels a day for the past four weeks, up by 2% compared with the same period a year ago.
The House Majority Leader, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), said in a speech in Houston Tuesday that the full House would vote on a bill by the end of this month to end the ban on U.S. crude oil exports. In the Obama administration’s first comment on repealing the export ban, the White House press chief said that the administration opposes repeal and believes instead that the Department of Commerce should issue an administrative rule governing exports.
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In its September revision to the Short-Term Energy Outlook, the EIA said it expects U.S. crude oil production to drop by nearly a million barrels a day between April 2015 (9.613 million barrels a day) and August 2016 (8.63 million barrels a day). What impact that will have on the price of crude oil remains to be seen because demand has slipped as well.
Before the EIA report, benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for October delivery traded up about 2.7% at around $45.80 a barrel. The WTI price dipped to around $45.60 immediately following the report’s release, still up about 2.5% on the day. The 52-week range on WTI futures is $37.75 to $90.76.
Distillate inventories increased by 3.1 million barrels last week and remain in the middle of the average range for this time of year. Distillate product supplied averaged 3.6 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down by 2.8% when compared with the same period last year. Distillate production averaged 5.1 million barrels a day last week, up about 300,000 barrels a day compared with the prior week’s production.
For the past week, crude imports averaged 7.2 million barrels a day, down by 270,000 barrels a day compared with the previous week. Refineries were running at 93.1% of capacity, with daily input of over 16.5 million barrels, about 403,000 barrels a day above the previous week’s average.
According to AAA, the current national average pump price per gallon of regular gasoline is $2.308, down from $2.380 a week ago and from $2.669 a month ago. Last year at this time, a gallon of regular cost $3.381 on average in the United States.
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Here is a look at how share prices for two blue-chip stocks and two exchange traded funds reacting to this latest report.
Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) traded up about 1.6%, at $74.03 in a 52-week range of $66.55 to $97.93. Year to date, Exxon stock traded down about 20%, and it is down about 23% since early November as of Tuesday’s close.
Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) traded up about 1.2%, at $78.06 in a 52-week range of $69.58 to $125.70. As of Tuesday’s close, Chevron shares have dropped about 30% year to date and trade down nearly 35% since early November.
The United States Oil ETF (NYSEMKT: USO) traded up about 2.2%, at $14.89 in a 52-week range of $12.37 to $35.62.
The Market Vectors Oil Services ETF (NYSEMKT: OIH) traded up about 3.5%, at $30.68 in a 52-week range of $26.00 to $52.79.
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