USA Crude Oil Inventories Drop

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USA Crude Oil Inventories Drop

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 2.3 million barrels from the week ending February 14 to the week ending February 21, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report. That report was released on February 26 and included data for […]

That report was released on February 26 and included data for the week ending February 21. It showed that crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 430.2 million barrels on February 21, 432.5 million barrels on February 14, and 447.2 million barrels on February 23, 2024. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 395.3 million barrels on February 21 and February 14, and 360.3 million barrels on February 23, 2024, the report outlined.

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 1.605 billion barrels on February 21, the report showed. Total petroleum stocks were down 2.2 million barrels week on week and up 16.6 million barrels year on year, the report outlined.

“At 430.2 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about four percent below the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA said in its latest weekly petroleum status report.

“Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 0.4 million barrels from last week and are slightly below the five year average for this time of year. Finished gasoline inventories decreased, while blending components inventories increased last week,” it added.

“Distillate fuel inventories increased by 3.9 million barrels last week and are about eight percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories decreased by 3.7 million barrels from last week and are one percent below the five year average for this time of year,” it continued.

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.7 million barrels per day during the week ending February 21, according to the report, which highlighted that this was 317,000 barrels per day more than the previous week’s average.

“Refineries operated at 86.5 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the EIA said in the report.

“Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.2 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production increased last week, averaging 5.2 million barrels per day,” it added.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 5.9 million barrels per day last week, the report noted. It outlined that this was an increase of 98,000 barrels per day from the previous week.

“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.2 million barrels per day, 5.5 percent less 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 462,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 370,000 barrels per day,” it added.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.3 million barrels a day, up by 4.2 percent from the same period last year, the EIA stated in its report.

“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.4 million barrels a day, down by 0.1 percent from the same period last year,” it added.

“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 4.2 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 13.1 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 4.5 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it continued.

In an oil and gas report sent to Rigzone by the Macquarie team late Monday, Macquarie strategists revealed that they were forecasting that U.S. crude inventories would be up by 0.6 million barrels for the week ending February 21.

“This compares to our early look for the week which anticipated a 0.7 million barrel build, and a 4.6 million barrel build realized for the week ending February 14,” the strategists said in the report.

In its previous weekly petroleum status report, which was released on February 20 and included data for the week ending February 14, the EIA highlighted that U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the SPR, increased by 4.6 million barrels from the week ending February 7 to the week ending February 14.

The EIA’s latest weekly petroleum status report also noted that the national average retail price for regular gasoline decreased to $3.125 per gallon on February 24. It highlighted that this was “$0.23 below last week’s price, and $0.124 less than the year-ago price”.

“The national average retail diesel fuel price increased $0.020 to $3.697 per gallon, $0.361 lower than the price one year ago,” the EIA stated in its latest report.

According to the AAA Fuel Prices website, the U.S. average regular gasoline price is $3.125 per gallon, as of February 27. The U.S. average diesel price is $3.676 per gallon, as of February 27, the site showed.

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