USA Crude Oil Stocks Increase Week on Week

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), increased by 2.4 million barrels from the week ending August 22 to the week ending August 29, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report.

This report was released on September 4 and included data for the week ending August 29. It showed that crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 420.7 million barrels on August 29, 418.3 million barrels on August 22, and 418.3 million barrels on August 30, 2024. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 404.7 million barrels on August 29, 404.2 million barrels on August 22, and 379.7 million barrels on August 29, 2024, the report revealed.

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 1.670 billion barrels on August 29, the report highlighted. Total petroleum stocks were up 7.6 million barrels week on week and up 20.6 million barrels year on year, the report showed.

“At 420.7 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 decreased by 3.8 million barrels from last week and are about two percent below the five year average for this time of year. Both finished gasoline inventories and blending components inventories decreased last week,” it added.

“Distillate fuel inventories increased by 1.7 million barrels last week and are about 13 percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories increased by 3.2 million barrels from last week and are 12 percent above the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA continued.

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.9 million barrels per day during the week ending August 29, according to the EIA report, which pointed out that this was 11,000 barrels per day less than the previous week’s average.

“Refineries operated at 94.3 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the EIA said in the report.

“Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.9 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production increased by 36,000 barrels per day last week, averaging 5.3 million barrels per day,” it added.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.7 million barrels per day last week, the EIA pointed out in its report. This represented an increase of 508,000 barrels per day from the previous week, the EIA highlighted in the report.

“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.6 million barrels per day, 4.4 percent more than the same four-week period last year,” the EIA noted in its report.

“Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 582,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 96,000 barrels per day,” it added.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 21.3 million barrels a day, up by 2.5 percent from the same period last year, the EIA stated in its latest weekly petroleum status report.

“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 9.1 million barrels a day, down by 0.8 percent from the same period last year,” the EIA said.

“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.9 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 4.2 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 4.4 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” the EIA added.

In a market analysis sent to Rigzone on Wednesday, Konstantinos Chrysikos, Head of Customer Relationship Management at Kudotrade, said traders were “forecasting a U.S. crude inventory draw of approximately 3.4 million barrels for the week ending August 29”.

“A draw of this magnitude, to be confirmed in the official EIA report, could reinforce the view of a tightening near-term market balance and could support prices,” Chrysikos added in that analysis.

In an oil and gas report sent to Rigzone late Tuesday by the Macquarie team, Macquarie strategists, including Walt Chancellor, revealed that they were forecasting that U.S. crude inventories would be down by 1.1 million barrels for the week ending August 29.

“This follows a 2.4 million barrel draw in the prior week, with the crude balance realizing slightly tighter than our expectations,” the strategists said in that report.

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