USA Crude Oil Stocks Drop Week on Week

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 1.3 million barrels from the week ending December 5 to the week ending December 12.

That’s what the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report, which was released on December 17 and included data for the week ending December 12.

The EIA report showed that crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 424.4 million barrels on December 12, 425.7 million barrels on December 5, and 421.0 million barrels on December 13, 2024.

Crude oil in the SPR stood at 412.2 million barrels on December 12, 411.9 million barrels on December 5, and 393.1 million barrels on December 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 1.687 billion barrels on December 12, the report showed. Total petroleum stocks were up 2.4 million barrels week on week and up 60.9 million barrels year on year, the report pointed out.

“At 424.4 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 increased by 4.8 million barrels from last week and are slightly below the five year average for this time of year. Finished gasoline inventories decreased, while blending components inventories increased last week,” it added.

“Distillate fuel inventories increased by 1.7 million barrels last week and are about six percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories decreased 1.8 million barrels from last week and are about 17 percent above the five year average for this time of year,” it continued.

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 17.0 million barrels per day during the week ending December 12, according to the report, which highlighted that this was 129,000 barrels per day more than the previous week’s average.

“Refineries operated at 94.8 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the EIA said in its weekly petroleum status report.

“Gasoline production increased last week, averaging 9.6 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production decreased by 228,000 barrels per day last week, averaging 5.2 million barrels per day,” it added.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.5 million barrels per day last week, the report stated. It pointed out that this was a decrease of 64,000 barrels per day from the previous week.

“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.4 million barrels per day, 1.8 percent less than the same four-week period last year,” the EIA said in its report.

“Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 834,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 268,000 barrels per day,” it added.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.5 million barrels a day, up by 0.8 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 8.6 million barrels a day, down by 1.1 percent from the same as the last year period,” the EIA added.

“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.7 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down by 2.2 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was down 2.1 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it continued.

In an oil and gas report sent to Rigzone by the Macquarie team this week, Macquarie strategists, including Walt Chancellor, revealed that they were forecasting that U.S. crude inventories would be up by 2.5 million barrels for the week ending December 12.

“This follows a 1.8 million barrel draw in the prior week, with the crude balance realizing quite loose relative to our expectations amidst an apparent surge in Canadian imports,” the strategists said in that report.

“While our balances point to a much looser fundamental picture this week, we note some potential for a ‘catch-up’ to the tighter side in this week’s data,” they warned.

In its report, the EIA also highlighted that the price for West Texas Intermediate crude oil was $57.61 per barrel on December 12. It pointed out that this was $2.62 less than a week ago and $13.93 less than a year ago.

The report also highlighted that the national average retail price for regular gasoline decreased to $2.895 per gallon on December 15, “$0.045 less than last week’s price, and $0.121 less than the year-ago price”. It added that the national average retail diesel fuel price “decreased $0.058 to $3.607 per gallon, $0.113 more than the price one year ago”.

According to the AAA Fuel Prices website, the average price of regular gasoline in the U.S. is $2.896 per gallon and the average price of diesel in the U.S. is $3.635 per gallon, as of December 18. 

The EIA’s next weekly petroleum status report is scheduled to be released on December 24. It will include data for the week ending December 19.

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