USA Crude Oil Stocks Rise Week on Week

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), increased by 3.5 million barrels from the week ending October 3 to the week ending October 10, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report.

That report was released on October 16 and included data for the week ending October 10. It showed that crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 423.8 million barrels on October 10, 420.3 million barrels on October 3, and 420.6 million barrels on October 11, 2024. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 407.7 million barrels on October 10, 407.0 million barrels on October 3, and 383.9 million barrels on October 11, 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 1.696 billion barrels on October 10, the report highlighted. Total petroleum stocks were up 2.4 million barrels week on week and up 60.7 million barrels year on year, the report showed.

“At 423.8 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 weekly petroleum status report.

“Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 0.3 million barrels from last week and are slightly 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 decreased by 4.5 million barrels last week and are about seven percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories increased by 1.9 million barrels from last week and are 11 percent above the five year average for this time of year,” it continued.

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.1 million barrels per day during the week ending October 10, according to the report, which highlighted that this was 1.2 million barrels per day less than the previous week’s average.

“Refineries operated at 85.7 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the EIA added.

“Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.4 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production decreased by 577,000 barrels per day last week, averaging 4.6 million barrels per day,” it said.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 5.5 million barrels per day last week, the EIA noted in its report. It pointed out that this was a decrease of 878,000 barrels per day from the previous week.

“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.1 million barrels per day, 2.4 percent less than the same four-week period last year,” the EIA noted in the report.

“Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 532,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 160,000 barrels per day,” it added.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.7 million barrels a day, down by 0.5 percent from the same period last year, the EIA stated in its report.

“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.7 million barrels a day, down by 3.2 percent from the same as the last year period,” the EIA said.

“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 4.0 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 0.2 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was down 4.8 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it added.

In a Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB) report sent to Rigzone by the SEB team late Thursday, Ole R. Hvalbye, Commodities Analyst at the company, highlighted that the EIA’s latest weekly petroleum status report “showed a 3.5 million barrels rise in commercial crude inventories last week, taking total inventories to 423.8 million, still around four percent below the five-year average for this time of year”.

“Gasoline stocks slipped by 0.3 million barrels, while distillates drew sharply by 4.5 million barrels and remain about seven percent below seasonal norms. Propane inventories rose by 1.9 million barrels and now stand 11 percent above their five-year average, underlining ample supply heading into winter,” he added.

“In total, commercial petroleum inventories (excluding SPR) increased by 1.7 million barrels on the week. The build was not as large inventory build as API [American Petroleum Institute] indicated … [Wednesday] night, but still up in total (including SPR) 2.4 million barrels vs normal decline of about 2.4 million barrels this time of year,” he continued.

In an oil and gas report sent to Rigzone late Monday by the Macquarie team, Macquarie strategists, including Walt Chancellor, revealed that they were forecasting that U.S. crude inventories would be up by 5.2 million barrels for the week ending October 10.

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