USA Crude Oil Inventories Drop

by Andreas Exarheas
click here to read the original article at Rigzone.com
*this article was not written by Roseland Oil & Gas

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 4.6 million barrels from the week ending November 24 to the week ending December 1, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest weekly petroleum status report.

Crude oil stocks in the U.S., not including the SPR, stood at 445.0 million barrels on December 1, 449.7 million barrels on November 24, and 413.9 million barrels on December 2, 2022, the report revealed. Crude stocks in the SPR stood at 351.9 million barrels on December 1, 351.6 million barrels on November 24, and 387.0 million barrels on December 2, 2022, the report showed.

Total petroleum stocks in the U.S. – including crude oil, total motor gasoline, fuel ethanol, kerosene type jet fuel, distillate fuel oil, residual fuel oil, propane/propylene, and other oils – were 1.621 billion barrels on December 1, the report revealed. This figure was down 1.4 million barrels week on week and up 17.0 million barrels year on year, the report highlighted.

“At 445.0 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about one percent below the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA noted in the report.

“Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 5.4 million barrels from last week and are about one percent below the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA added.

“Both finished gasoline and blending components inventories increased last week. Distillate fuel inventories increased by 1.3 million barrels last week and are about 13 percent below the five year average for this time of year,” it continued.

“Propane/propylene inventories decreased by 1.8 million barrels from last week and are 18 percent above the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA went on to state.

The organization also highlighted in the report that U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.2 million barrels per day during the week ending December 1. The EIA outlined that this was 179,000 barrels per day more than the previous week’s average.

“Refineries operated at 90.5 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the EIA said in the report.

“Gasoline production increased last week, averaging 9.5 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production increased last week, averaging 5.1 million barrels per day,” it added.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 7.5 million barrels per day last week, according to the report, which revealed that this figure increased by 1.7 million barrels per day from the previous week.

“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.6 million barrels per day, 6.4 percent more than the same four-week period last year,” the EIA said in the report.

“Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 689,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 82,000 barrels per day,” it added.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 19.7 million barrels a day, according to the report, which outlined that this was down by 2.1 percent from the same period last year.

“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.5 million barrels a day, up by 1.1 percent from the same period last year,” the EIA said in the report.

“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.7 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 0.5 percent from the same period last year,” it added.

“Jet fuel product supplied was up 1.8 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it continued.

In a separate report sent to Rigzone prior to the release of the EIA’s latest weekly petroleum status report, Macquarie strategists revealed that they were forecasting that U.S. crude inventories would be down 13.4 million barrels for the week ending December 1.

“This compares to a 1.6 million barrel build for the week ending November 24, with the total U.S. crude balance realizing tighter than we had anticipated,” the strategists said in that report.

“Given our expectations for extremely high U.S. exports in our balances this week and surprisingly strong nominal EIA export figures in prior weeks, timing of cargoes could introduce significant volatility into this week’s crude stats,” they added.

“For this week, from refineries, we look for a moderate increase in crude runs (+0.3 million barrels per day) amidst a further reduction in estimated outages,” they continued.

“While last week’s EIA crude runs tracked our expectations fairly well, given underperformance in prior weeks, we continue to flag potential for a catch-up, driving additional volatility in U.S. balances,” they went on to state.

In the report, the Macquarie strategists outlined that, among net imports, they modeled a “large week on week decrease, with exports nominally much stronger (+1.2 million barrels per day) and imports also up (+0.6 million barrels per day)”.

“From implied domestic supply (production +adjustment+transfers), we again look for a week on week reduction (-1.3 million barrels per day) following yet another very strong nominal print last week,” they added.

“Rounding out the picture, we again anticipate a small increase (+0.3 million barrels) in SPR inventory on the week,” the strategists continued.

by Andreas Exarheas
click here to read the original article at Rigzone.com
*this article was not written by Roseland Oil & Gas