U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), increased by 5.5 million barrels from the week ending January 26 to week ending February 2, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest weekly petroleum status report.
Crude oil stocks in the U.S., not including the SPR, stood at 427.4 million barrels on February 2, 421.9 million barrels on January 26, and 455.1 million barrels on February 3, 2023, the report showed. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 358.0 million barrels on February 2, 357.4 million barrels on January 26, and 371.6 million barrels on February 3, 2023, according to the report.
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 1.585 billion barrels on February 2, the report outlined. This figure was down 3.8 million barrels week on week and 25.5 million barrels year on year, the report revealed.
“At 427.4 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about four percent below the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA noted in the report.
“Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 3.1 million barrels from last week and are about one percent 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 decreased by 3.2 million barrels last week and are about seven percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories decreased by 2.0 million barrels from last week and are two percent above the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA continued.
U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 14.8 million barrels per day during the week ending February 2, according to the report, which highlighted that this was 9,000 barrels per day less than the previous week’s average.
“Refineries operated at 82.4 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the EIA said in the report.
“Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.0 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production decreased last week, averaging 4.4 million barrels per day,” it added.
U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.9 million barrels per day last week, the EIA report stated. This increased by 1.3 million barrels per day from the previous week, according to the report.
“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.4 million barrels per day, 5.9 percent less than the same four-week period last year,” the EIA highlighted in the report.
“Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 536,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 126,000 barrels per day,” it added.
The EIA also revealed in the report that total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 19.9 million barrels a day, which it said was down by 0.8 percent from the same period last year.
“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.3 million barrels a day, slightly below the same period last year,” the EIA said in the report.
“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.8 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down by 2.3 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was down 0.4 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it added.
In a SEB report published on February 8, which focused on the latest EIA weekly petroleum status report and was sent to Rigzone, SEB analysts stated that, “of particular importance is the commercial crude inventories (excluding SPR) climbing by 5.5 million barrels week over week”.
“Even though this is an expected move according to seasonal patterns, it was significantly stronger than the API data (+0.7 million barrels) from earlier this week, meaning the market experienced a stronger build than anticipated,” they added.
“A stronger than anticipated build in crude inventories is indeed a bearish sign; however, the strong draw among oil products - combined with the fact that commercial crude continues to be significantly lower than the historical norm - sent oil prices in a positive direction during yesterday’s close,” they went on to state.
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 up by 3.7 million barrels for the week ending February 2.
“This compares to a 1.2 million barrel build for the week ending January 26, 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 model a slight reduction in crude runs (-0.1 million barrels per day). Among net imports, we likewise anticipate a small week on week decrease, with exports (+1.1 million barrels per day) and imports (+0.9 million barrels per day) sharply higher,” they added.
“From implied domestic supply (prod.+adj.+transfers), we look for another increase (+0.4 million barrels per day) as production appears largely recovered from freeze-related impacts. Rounding out the picture, we anticipate a smaller increase in SPR inventory (+0.6 million barrels) on the week,” they continued.
To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com
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