U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 1.4 million barrels from the week ending November 29 to the week ending December 6, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report, which was released on Wednesday.
Crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 422.0 million barrels on December 6, 423.4 million barrels on November 29, and 440.8 million barrels on December 8, 2023, the report showed. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 392.5 million barrels on December 6, 391.8 million barrels on November 29, and 351.9 million barrels on December 8, 2023, according to the report.
Total petroleum stocks – 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 1.628 billion barrels on December 6, the report revealed. This figure was down 0.2 million barrels week on week and up 17.7 million barrels year on year, the report outlined.
“At 422.0 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about six percent below the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA noted in its latest weekly petroleum status report.
“Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 5.1 million barrels from last week and are about four percent below the five year average for this time of year. Finished gasoline and blending components inventories both increased last week,” it added.
“Distillate fuel inventories increased by 3.2 million barrels last week and are about four percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories decreased by 3.0 million barrels from last week and are seven percent above the five year average for this time of year,” it continued.
U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.7 million barrels per day during the week ending December 6, the EIA stated in its report, highlighting that this was 251,000 barrels per day less than the previous week’s average.
“Refineries operated at 92.4 percent of their operable capacity last week. Gasoline production increased last week, averaging 10.0 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production decreased last week, averaging 5.2 million barrels per day,” it added.
U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.0 million barrels per day last week, according to the report, which pointed out that this was a decrease of 1.3 million barrels per day from the previous week.
“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.8 million barrels per day, 2.5 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 464,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 154,000 barrels per day,” it added.
Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.1 million barrels a day, according to the EIA report, which outlined that this figure was up by 0.9 percent from the same period last year.
“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.6 million barrels a day, up by 1.4 percent from the same period last year,” the EIA said in the report.
“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.6 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down by 2.1 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 7.4 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it added.
The EIA’s report also noted that the national average retail price for regular gasoline declined to $3.008 per gallon on December 9, “$0.026 below last week’s price, and $0.128 less than the year-ago price”. The national average retail diesel fuel price decreased $0.082 to $3.458 per gallon, the report stated. That was $0.529 lower than the price one year ago, it pointed out.
According to the AAA Fuel Prices website, the average price of regular gasoline in the U.S. is $3.026 per gallon and the average price of diesel is $3.508 per gallon, as of December 12. The week ago gasoline price stood at $3.032 per gallon and the week ago diesel price was $3.536 per gallon, the site showed.
In a Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB) report sent to Rigzone on Thursday, Ole R. Hvalbye, a commodities analyst at the company, outlined that the latest EIA weekly petroleum status report “highlights a tightening market here and now, albeit with pockets of a strong supply of refined products”.
In a report sent to Rigzone late Monday by the Macquarie team, Macquarie strategists revealed that they were forecasting that U.S. crude inventories would be up by 6.9 million barrels for the week ending December 6. In a report sent to Rigzone by the Macquarie team on Friday, Macquarie strategists outlined that they saw “potential for a solid U.S. crude stock build” in the EIA’s December 11 weekly petroleum status report.
“Looking ahead to next week’s release, we see potential for a solid U.S. crude stock build (+3.8 million barrels), with runs down minimally, nominal implied supply higher (+0.9 million barrels per day), net imports modestly higher (+0.3 million barrels per day), and a smaller increase in SPR inventory (+0.7 million barrels) on the week,” Macquarie strategists said in Friday’s report.
In its previous weekly petroleum status report, which was released on December 4 and included data for the week ending November 29, the EIA highlighted that U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the SPR, decreased by 5.1 million barrels from the week ending November 22 to the week ending November 29.
The EIA’s next weekly petroleum status report is scheduled to be released on December 18 and will include data for the week ending December 13.
To contact the author, email [email protected]
Source link
#USA #Crude #Oil #Stocks #Drop #1.4MM #Barrels #WoW