U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 5.5 million barrels from the week ending December 22, 2023, to the week ending December 29, 2023, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest weekly petroleum status report.
The country’s crude oil stock, excluding the SPR, stood at 431.1 million barrels on December 29, 436.6 million barrels on December 22, and 420.6 million barrels on December 30, 2022, the report showed. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 354.4 million barrels on December 29, 353.3 million barrels on December 22, and 372.4 million barrels on December 30, 2022, the report revealed.
Total petroleum stocks in the U.S. – 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 1.605 billion barrels on December 29, the report outlined. This figure was up 7.9 million barrels week on week and up 27.9 million barrels year on year, the report showed.
“At 431.1 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about two percent below the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA noted in the report.
“Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 10.9 million barrels from last week and are slightly above 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 10.1 million barrels last week and are about 6% below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories decreased by 2.0 million barrels from last week and are 13 percent above the five year average for this time of year,” it continued.
U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.7 million barrels per day during the week ending December 29, according to the report, which highlighted that this was 121,000 barrels per day more than the previous week’s average.
“Refineries operated at 93.5 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the report stated.
“Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 8.8 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production increased last week, averaging 5.2 million barrels per day,” it added.
U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.9 million barrels per day last week, the report revealed. They increased by 619,000 barrels per day from the previous week, it highlighted.
“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.6 million barrels per day, 7.0 percent more 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 659,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 194,000 barrels per day,” it added.
The EIA report noted that total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.6 million barrels a day, which it said was up by 0.6 percent from the same period last year.
“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.7 million barrels a day, up by 2.7 percent from the same period last year,” it said.
“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.6 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down by 1.5 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 2.1 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it added.
In a report sent to Rigzone prior to the release of the EIA’s latest weekly petroleum status report, Macquarie strategists revealed that they were forecasting that U.S. crude inventories would be down 8.0 million barrels for the week ending December 29.
“This compares to a 7.1 million barrel draw for the week ending December 22, with the total U.S. crude balance realizing tighter than we had anticipated,” the strategists said in the report.
“For this week, from refineries, we look for a minor reduction in crude runs following another strong print last week. We again flag potential for a catch-up in refining runs following generally weak performance exiting turnaround season,” they added.
“Among net imports, we model a meaningful week on week decrease, with exports nominally sharply higher (+1.3 million barrels per day) and imports also up (+0.6 million barrels per day). As with last week, timing of cargoes could drive additional volatility in this week’s crude balance,” they continued.
“From implied domestic supply (production+adjustment+transfers), we look for a bounce-back (+0.6 million barrels per day) following a soft print last week. Rounding out the picture, we anticipate another modest increase in SPR inventory (+1.1 million barrels) on the week,” the Macquarie strategists went on to note.
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