USA Crude Oil Stocks Drop

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, decreased by 2.1 million barrels from the week ending September 8 to the week ending September 15, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest weekly petroleum status report.

Crude oil stocks in the country, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, stood at 418.5 million barrels on September 15, 420.6 million barrels on September 8, and 430.8 million barrels on September 16, 2022, the report revealed.

“At 418.5 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about three percent below the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA said in the latest weekly petroleum status report.

Crude oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve came in at 351.2 million barrels on September 15, 350.6 million barrels on September 8, and 427.2 million barrels on September 16, 2022, according to the report.

In its latest report, the EIA outlined that total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 0.8 million barrels from September 8 to September 15 and noted that they are about three percent below the five year average for this time of year.

“Finished gasoline inventories increased, while blending components inventories decreased last week. Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 2.9 million barrels last week and are about 14 percent below the five year average for this time of year,” the report stated.

“Propane/propylene inventories increased 1.6 million barrels from last week and are 20 percent above the five year average for this time of year. Total commercial petroleum inventories increased by 3.0 million barrels last week,” it added.

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.3 million barrels per day during the week ending September 15, which was 496,000 barrels per day less than the previous week’s average, the report revealed.

“Refineries operated at 91.9 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the report said.

“Gasoline production increased last week, averaging 9.7 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production decreased last week, averaging 4.8 million barrels per day,” it added.

Looking at U.S. crude oil imports, the report revealed that these averaged 6.5 million barrels per day last week and decreased by 1.1 million barrels per day from the previous week.

“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.9 million barrels per day, 7.9 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 511,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 83,000 barrels per day,” it added.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.9 million barrels a day, up by 6.8 percent from the same period last year, the EIA report noted.

“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.8 million barrels a day, up by 2.8 percent from the same period last year,” it added.

“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.8 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 11.5 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 14.2 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it continued.

The national average retail price for regular gasoline was $3.878 per gallon on September 18, $0.056 more than a week ago, and $0.224 more than the price last year, the EIA report stated.

The national average retail price for diesel fuel increased to $4.633 per gallon, $0.093 more than a week ago, but $0.331 less than the price one year ago, it added.

According to the AAA Gas Prices website, as of September 21, the national average price for regular gasoline is $3.867 per gallon and the national average price for diesel is $4.583 per gallon.

In a report sent to Rigzone this week, Macquarie strategists projected that U.S. crude inventories would be down 0.7 million barrels for the week ending September 15.

“This follows a 4.0 million barrel build for the week ending September 8, with the total U.S. crude balance realizing modestly tighter than we had anticipated,” the strategists said in the report.

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