USA Crude Oil Stocks Drop More Than 9MM Barrels WoW

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 9.3 million barrels from the week ending September 5 to the week ending September 12, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report.

The EIA report was released on September 17 and included data for the week ending September 12. It showed that crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 415.4 million barrels on September 9, 424.6 million barrels on September 5, and 417.5 million barrels on September 13, 2024. The report highlighted that data may not add up to totals due to independent rounding.

Crude oil in the SPR stood at 405.7 million barrels on September 12, 405.2 million barrels on September 5, and 380.6 million barrels on September 13, 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 1.688 billion barrels on September 12, the report highlighted. Total petroleum stocks were up 1.7 million barrels week on week and up 25.0 million barrels year on year, the report showed.

“At 415.4 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about five 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 2.3 barrels from last week and are one 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 four million barrels last week and are about eight below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories increased by 1.3 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 16.4 million barrels per day during the week ending September 12, according to the EIA’s latest weekly petroleum status report, which highlighted that this was 394,000 barrels per day less than the previous week’s average.

“Refineries operated at 93.3 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the EIA noted in the report.

“Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.4 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production decreased by 274,000 barrels per day last week, averaging five million barrels per day,” it added.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 5.7 million barrels per day last week, the EIA said in its report, pointing out that this was a decrease of 579,000 barrels per day from the previous week.

“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.2 million barrels per day, 2.4 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 569,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 95,000 barrels per day,” it added.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.7 million barrels a day, up by 1.7 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 8.9 million barrels a day, up by 0.5 percent from the same period last year,” the EIA added.

“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.7 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down by 1.8 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 1.1 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” the EIA went on to state.

In an oil and gas report sent to Rigzone late Monday by the Macquarie team, Macquarie strategists, including Walt Chancellor, revealed that they were expecting a “meaningful [U.S.] crude draw alongside product builds” this week.

“We are forecasting U.S. crude inventories down 6.4 million barrels for the week ending September 12,” the strategists noted in that report.

“This follows a 3.9 million barrel build in the prior week, with the crude balance again realizing looser than our expectations,” they added.

In its previous weekly petroleum status report, which was released on September 10 and included data for the week ending September 5, the EIA highlighted that U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the SPR, increased by 3.9 million barrels from the week ending August 29 to the week ending September 5.

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