US Crude Oil inventories fall below five-year average: EIA report

August 18, 2023 (MLN): The U.S. crude oil inventories fell to 439.7 million barrels during the week ending on August 11, about 1% below the five-year average, the latest U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) weekly petroleum status report on Wednesday showed.

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) decreased by 6.0m barrels from the previous week.

Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 0.3m barrels from last week and are about 6% below the five-year average for this time of year.

Finished gasoline inventories decreased while blending components inventories increased last week.

Distillate fuel inventories increased by 0.3m barrels last week and are about 16% below the five-year average for this time of year.

Propane/ propylene inventories increased by 0.7m barrels from last week and are 21% above the five-year average for this time of year.

Total commercial petroleum inventories decreased by 7.4m barrels last week.

Imports

Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.7m barrels per day, 4.1% more than the same four-week period last year.

Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 586 thousand barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 129,000 barrels per day.

Production

The U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.7 million barrels per day during the week ending August 11, 2023, which was 166,000 barrels per day more than the previous week’s average.

According to the EIA report, refineries operated at 94.7% of their operable capacity last week.

Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.6m barrels per day.

Distillate fuel production decreased last week, averaging 4.7m barrels per day. U.S. crude oil imports averaged 7.2m barrels per day last week, increased by 476 thousand barrels per day from the previous week.

Supply (Implied Demand)

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.9m barrels a day, up by 3.8% from the same period last year.

Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 9.0m barrels a day, down by 0.9% from the same period last year.

Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.7m barrels a day over the past four weeks, down by 2.1% from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 4.6% compared with the same four-week period last year.

Price

The West Texas Intermediate crude oil price was $83.17 per barrel on August 11, 2023, $0.41 higher than a week ago, but $11.69 less than a year ago.

The spot price for conventional gasoline at New York Harbor increased to $2.995 per gallon, $0.196 more than the price last week, but $0.122 less than the price last year at the same time.

The New York Harbor spot price for ultralow sulfur diesel fuel rose to $3.114 per gallon, $0.052 above last week’s price, but $0.398 less than the year-ago price.

The national average retail price for regular gasoline was $3.850 per gallon on August 14, 2023, $0.022 more than last week, but $0.088 less than the price a year ago.

The national average retail price for diesel fuel rose to $4.378 per gallon, $0.139 more than a week ago, but $0.533 less than the price one year ago.

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