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USA Crude Oil Inventories Drop 1MM Barrels WoW

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 1.0 million barrels from the week ending December 27 to the week ending January 3, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report. Crude oil stocks, excluding the SPR, stood at 414.6 million barrels […]

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 1.0 million barrels from the week ending December 27 to the week ending January 3, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report.

Crude oil stocks, excluding the SPR, stood at 414.6 million barrels on January 3, 415.6 million barrels on December 27, and 432.4 million barrels on January 5, 2024, the report revealed. Crude oil in the SPR came in at 393.8 million barrels on January 3, 393.6 million barrels on December 27, and 355.0 million barrels on January 5, 2024, the report showed.

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 January 3, the report revealed. This figure was up 5.3 million barrels week on week and up 13.0 million barrels year on year, the report outlined.

“At 414.6 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about six percent below the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA stated in its latest weekly petroleum status report.

“Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 6.3 million barrels from last week and are about one percent below the five year average for this time of year. Finished gasoline inventories decreased last week while blending components inventories increased last week,” it added.

“Distillate fuel inventories increased by 6.1 million barrels last week and are about four percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/ propylene inventories decreased by 2.5 million barrels from last week and are nine percent above the five year average for this time of year,” it continued.

In the report, the EIA noted that U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.9 million barrels per day during the week ending January 3. It pointed out that this was 44,000 barrels per day more than the previous week’s average.

“Refineries operated at 93.3 percent of their operable capacity last week. Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 8.9 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production decreased last week, averaging 5.2 million barrels per day,” the EIA said in the report.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.4 million barrels per day last week, according to the report, which outlined that this was a decrease of 497,000 barrels per day from the previous week.

“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.6 million barrels per day, 1.4 percent more than the same four-week period last year,” the EIA said.

“Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 455,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 200,000 barrels per day,” it added in the report.

The EIA also stated in the report that total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.2 million barrels a day. This was up by 0.1 percent from the same period last year, according to the report.

“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.6 million barrels a day, up by 1.2 percent from the same period last year,” the report said.

“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.8 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 9.1 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 8.8 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” the EIA report went on to note.

In an oil and gas 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 6.5 million barrels for the week ending January 3.

“This compares to our early look for the week which anticipated a 7.4 million barrel build, and a 1.2 million barrel draw realized for the week ending December 27,” the strategists said in the report.

“For this week’s crude balance, from refineries, we model crude runs lower (-0.3 million barrels per day). Among net imports, we model a modest increase, with exports (-0.8 million barrels per day) and imports lower (-0.6 million barrels per day) on a nominal basis,” they added.

“Timing of cargoes remains a source of potential volatility in this week’s crude balance. Likewise, year-end/timing effects could insert additional volatility in this week’s stats. Nevertheless, from implied domestic supply (prod.+adj. +transfers), we look for a bounce (+0.6 million barrels per day) following a soft print last week,” they continued.

“Rounding out the picture, we anticipate a small increase in SPR inventory (+0.2 million barrels) on the week,” the strategists went on to state.

The Macquarie strategists highlighted in the report that, “among products”, they looked for “another large gasoline build (+6.8 million barrels), with distillate stocks also higher (+3.2 million barrels), and jet up slightly (+0.1 million barrels)”.

“Amidst continued holiday/seasonal effects, we model implied demand for these three products at ~13.2 million barrels per day for the week ending January 3,” the strategists added in that report.

In its previous weekly petroleum status report, which was released on January 2 and included data for the week ending December 27, the EIA highlighted that U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the SPR, decreased by 1.2 million barrels from the week ending December 20 to the week ending December 27.

The EIA’s latest weekly petroleum status report was released on January 8 and included data for the week ending January 3. Its next weekly petroleum status report is scheduled to be released on January 15. It will include data for the week ending January 10.

To contact the author, email [email protected]

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