U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) decreased by 2.0 million barrels from the week ending March 8 to the week ending March 15, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed in its latest weekly petroleum status report.Crude oil stocks in the country, not including the SPR, stood at 445.0 million barrels on March 15, 447.0 million barrels on March 8, and 481.2 million barrels on March 17, 2023, the report showed. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 362.3 million barrels on March 15, 361.6 million barrels on March 8, and 371.6 million barrels on March 17 last year, according to the report.
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 1.574 billion barrels on March 15, the report outlined. This figure was down 5.4 million barrels week on week and down 45.3 million barrels year on year, the report revealed.“At 445.0 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 3.3 million barrels from last week and are about two 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 0.6 million barrels last week and are about five percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories increased by 0.4 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 revealed that U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.8 million barrels per day during the week ending March 15, which it said was 127,000 barrels per day more than the previous week’s average.“Refineries operated at 87.8 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the EIA noted in the report.
“Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.6 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production increased last week, averaging 4.7 million barrels per day,” it added.U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.3 million barrels per day last week, according to the EIA, which highlighted that this was an increase of 787,000 barrels per day from the previous week.“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.3 million barrels per day, 2.0 percent more than the same four-week period last year,” the EIA stated in the report.
“Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 496,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 170,000 barrels per day,” it added.Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.1 million barrels a day, the EIA said in the report. It pointed out that this was up by 2.2 percent from the same period last year.
“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.8 million barrels a day, up by 0.3 percent from the same period last year,” the EIA said in the report.“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.7 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down by 1.9 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was down 0.2 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 down 7.6 million barrels for the week ending March 15.“This compares to a 1.5 million barrel draw for the week ending March 8, with the total U.S. crude balance realizing much tighter than we had anticipated, marking a prolonged stretch of tighter than expected weekly balances,” the strategists stated in that report.
“For this week, from refineries, we model a slight decrease in crude runs (-0.1 million barrels per day), following another strong print last week. Among net imports, we anticipate a very large nominal decrease, with exports sharply higher on a nominal basis (+2.0 million barrels per day) and imports also up (+0.6 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 moderate increase (+0.5 million barrels per day), following another weak nominal print last week,” they continued.“Rounding out the picture, we anticipate a slightly larger increase in SPR inventory (+0.7 million barrels) on the week,” the Macquarie strategists went on to note.
Source:https://www.rigzone.com