By July 19, 2017 Read More →

US gasoline, crude stocks drop significantly: EIA

Crude stocks

US crude stocks fell last week, dropping more than analysts had predicted. Reuters file photo by Nick Oxford.

Crude stocks down 4.7 million barrels

Data compiled by the US Energy Information Administration shows gasoline and crude stocks fell significantly and by more than analysts had expected last week.

In the week ending July 14, crude inventories in the United States fell by 4.7 million barrels, against analysts’ expectations of a drop of 3.2 million barrels.

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The EIA reports gasoline stocks were down for the fifth straight week, falling 4.4 million barrels to 231 million barrels.  According to a poll by Reuters, analysts had expected a 655,000-barrel decline in gasoline stocks.

“The report was squarely supportive with the across-the-board inventory declines,” John Kilduff, partner at energy hedge fund Again Capital LLC told Reuters.

Gasoline prices have since risen, with RBOB futures up 1.8 per cent to $1.6076 per gallon.  The gasoline crack spread rose by 4.2 per cent to $20.74/barrel, up from $20.36 prior to the release of the EIA’s data.

Crude prices rose over one per cent by 11:58 a.m.  Brent futures for September delivery were up 60 cents to $49.44/barrel and US WTI for August was up 54 cents to $46.94.

US crude production increased and is now at 9.43 million barrels per day (b/d).  Carsten Fritsch, oil analyst at Commerzbank AG told Reuters that higher US output “increases pressure on OPEC to come up with some counteracting measures. Otherwise, the rebalancing of the oil market will remain painfully slow.”

EIA data shows refinery crude runs were down 125,000 b/d and refinery utilization rates dropped by 0.5 percentage points.

Distillate stocks, including diesel and heating oil, were down by 2.1 million barrels.  Analysts had expected an increase of 1.2 million barrels.

US crude imports were up by 576,000 b/d and crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery hub were down by 23,000 barrels.

 

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