USA Crude Oil Stocks 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 1.5 million barrels from the week ending March 1 to the week ending March 8, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest weekly petroleum status report.

Crude oil stocks in the country, not including the SPR, stood at 447.0 million barrels on March 8, 448.5 million barrels on March 1, and 480.1 million barrels on March 10, 2023, the report showed. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 361.6 million barrels on March 8, 361.0 million barrels on March 1, and 371.6 million barrels on March 10, 2023, the report revealed.

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 – stood at 1.579 billion barrels on March 8, the report outlined. This figure was down 4.1 million barrels week on week and down 50.3 million barrels year on year, the report revealed.

“At 447.0 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about three percent below the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA noted in the report.

“Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 5.7 million barrels from last week and are about three percent below the five year average for this time of year. Both finished gasoline and blending components inventories decreased last week,” it added.

“Distillate fuel inventories increased by 0.9 million barrels last week and are about seven percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories increased by 0.7 million barrels from last week and are eight percent above the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA continued.

The EIA highlighted in the report that U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.7 million barrels per day during the week ending March 8, which it pointed out was 390,000 barrels per day more than the previous week’s average.

“Refineries operated at 86.8 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the EIA said in the report.

“Gasoline production increased last week, averaging 9.9 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production increased last week, averaging 4.6 million barrels per day,” it added.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 5.5 million barrels per day last week, according to the EIA, which outlined in the report that this was a decrease of 1.7 million barrels per day from the previous week.

“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.4 million barrels per day, 2.9 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 634,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 171,000 barrels per day,” it added.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 19.9 million barrels a day, the EIA revealed, adding that this was up by 1.0 percent from the same period last year.

“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.7 million barrels a day, down by 1.3 percent from the same period last year,” the EIA said.

“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. Jet fuel product supplied was up 2.0 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it added.

In a report sent to Rigzone this week, 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 up 6.5 million barrels for the week ending March 8.

“This compares to a 1.4 million barrel build for the week ending March 1, with the total U.S. crude balance yet again realizing tighter than we had anticipated,” the strategists stated in the report.

“Moving to this week, from refineries, we model a minor decrease in crude runs, following a strong print last week. Among net imports, we anticipate a small nominal decrease, with exports sharply lower on a nominal basis (-1.2 million barrels per day) and imports also sharply lower (-1.4 million barrels per day),” they added.

“Timing of cargoes remains a source of potential volatility in this week’s crude balance. From implied domestic supply (prod.+adj.+transfers), we look for a bounce-back (+0.8 million barrels per day), following a very weak nominal print last week,” they continued.

“Rounding out the picture, we anticipate a slightly smaller increase in SPR inventory (+0.6 million barrels) on the week,” the strategists went on to state.

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