USA Crude Oil Stocks Drop Over 10MM Barrels

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 10.6 million barrels from the week ending August 18 to the week ending August 25, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest weekly petroleum status report.

Crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, came in at 422.9 million barrels on August 25, the EIA report showed. These stocks were at 433.5 million barrels on August 18 and 418.3 million barrels on August 26, 2022, the EIA report outlined.

There were 349.5 million barrels of crude oil in the SPR on August 25, according to the report, which highlighted that this figure stood at 348.9 million barrels on August 18 and 450.0 million barrels on August 26, 2022.

“At 422.9 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 0.2 million barrels from last week and are about five percent below the five year average for this time of year, the report stated, adding that finished gasoline inventories increased while blending components inventories decreased last week.

The report revealed that distillate fuel inventories increased by 1.2 million barrels last week and highlighted that they are about 15 percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/ propylene inventories increased 3.2 million barrels from last week and are 21 percent above the five year average for this time of year, the report noted.

Total commercial petroleum inventories decreased by 8.0 million barrels last week, according to the report.

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.6 million barrels per day during the week ending August 25, the report stated, adding that this was 173,000 barrels per day less than the previous week’s average.

“Refineries operated at 93.3 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the report said.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.6 million barrels per day last week and decreased by 316,000 barrels per day from the previous week, the EIA report revealed.

“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.8 million barrels per day, 12.1 percent more than the same four-week period last year,” the report stated.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 21.2 million barrels a day, according to the report, which noted that this was up by 6.1 percent from the same period last year.

“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 9.0 million barrels a day, up by 1.8 percent from the same period last year,” the report noted.

“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.7 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down by 1.0 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 0.8 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it added.

In a report sent to Rigzone late Tuesday, prior to the release of the EIA’s latest weekly petroleum status report, Macquarie strategists revealed that they were forecasting U.S. crude inventories down 8.8 million barrels for the week ending August 25.

“This follows a 6.1 million barrel draw for the week ending August 18, with the total U.S. crude balance realizing modestly looser than we had anticipated,” the strategists said in the report.

“From refineries, we look for a moderate drop in crude runs (-0.2 MBD). Among net imports, we look for exports significantly higher on a nominal basis (+0.5 MBD) and imports down week on week (-0.2 MBD); with respect to the former, we note export timing could inject a degree of volatility into this week’s stats,” the strategists added.

“From implied domestic supply (prod. + adj.), we look for a slight week on week increase (+0.1 MBD). Rounding out the picture, we anticipate yet another small increase in SPR inventory on the week (+0.6 million barrels),” the strategists continued.

In the report, the Macquarie strategists highlighted that, at Cushing, their refinery/pipeline model was calling for a draw of 1.75 million barrels this week.

“Among products, we look for a distillate draw (-1.0 million barrels) with builds in gasoline (+0.5 million barrels) and jet (+0.3 million barrels),” the strategists said.

“We model implied demand for these three products at ~14.5 MBD compared to 14.4 MBD last week and a trailing four-week avg. of 14.4 MBD,” they added.

To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com