USA Crude Oil Stocks Increase

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), increased by 0.4 million barrels from the week ending December 12 to the week ending December 19.

That’s what the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report at the time of writing, which was released late Monday and included data for the week ending December 19.

According to the report, crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 424.8 million barrels on December 19, 424.4 million barrels on December 12, and 416.8 million barrels on December 20, 2024.

Crude oil in the SPR stood at 413.0 million barrels on December 19, 412.2 million barrels on December 12, and 393.3 million barrels on December 20, 2024, the report showed. 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 December 19, the report showed. Total petroleum stocks were up 1.5 million barrels week on week and up 74.8 million barrels year on year, the report pointed out.

“At 424.8 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 its latest weekly petroleum status report.

“Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 2.9 million barrels from last week and are slightly above the five year average for this time of year. Both finished gasoline and blending components inventories increased last week,” it added.

“Distillate fuel inventories increased by 0.2 million barrels last week and are about five percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories decreased 0.5 million barrels from last week and are about 22 percent above the five year average for this time of year,” it continued.

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.8 million barrels per day during the week ending December 19, according to the report, which highlighted that this was 212,000 barrels per day less than the previous week’s average.

“Refineries operated at 94.6 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the EIA said in the report.

“Gasoline production increased last week, averaging 9.8 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production increased by 108,000 barrels per day last week, averaging 5.3 million barrels per day,” it added.

The report went on to state that “U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.1 million barrels per day last week”, noting that this was this was “decreased by 440,000 barrels per day from the previous week”.

“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.3 million barrels per day, 4.6 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 668,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 181,000 barrels per day,” it added.

The EIA also stated in its report that “total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.5 million barrels a day, down by 0.8 percent from the same period last year”.

“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.7 million barrels a day, down by 1.9 percent from the same as the last year period,” it noted.

“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.9 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down by 0.4 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was down 3.1 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it continued.

In a statement sent to Rigzone by the EIA on December 19, the EIA highlighted that the federal government would be closed from December 24 to December 26 and revealed that it would be releasing its weekly petroleum status report, with data for the week ending December 19, on December 29.

The EIA’s next weekly petroleum status report, which will include data for the week ending December 26, is scheduled to be released on December 31.

On its website, the EIA states that it collects, analyzes, and disseminates independent and impartial energy information to promote sound policymaking, efficient markets, and public understanding of energy and its interaction with the economy and the environment. In its weekly petroleum status report, the EIA describes itself as the independent statistical and analytical agency within the Department of Energy.

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