U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), increased by 3.2 million barrels from the week ending March 15 to the week ending March 22, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest weekly petroleum status report. Crude oil stocks in the country, not including the SPR, stood at 448.2 million barrels on March 22, 445.0 million barrels on March 15, and 473.7 million barrels on March 24, 2023, the report, which was released on Wednesday, revealed. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 363.1 million barrels on March 22, 362.3 million barrels on March 15, and 371.6 million barrels on March 24, 2023, the report outlined. 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 1.580 billion barrels on March 22, the report showed. This figure was up 6.1 million barrels week on week and down 28.6 million barrels year on year, the report revealed. “At 448.2 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 1.3 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 1.2 million barrels last week and are about six percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories slightly decreased from last week and are 10 percent above the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA continued. Also in the report, the EIA noted that U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.9 million barrels per day during the week ending March 22. The organization highlighted in the report that this was 148,000 barrels per day more than the previous week’s average. “Refineries operated at 88.7 percent of their operable capacity last week. Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.2 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production increased last week, averaging 4.8 million barrels per day,” the EIA said in the report. U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.7 million barrels per day last week, according to the EIA, which outlined in the report that this was an increase of 424,000 barrels per day from the previous week. “Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.4 million barrels per day, 7.1 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 522,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 165,000 barrels per day,” it added. Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.1 million barrels a day, the EIA revealed in the report, noting that this was up by 2.2 percent from the same period last year. “Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.9 million barrels a day, up by 0.9 percent from the same period last year,” the EIA stated in the report. “Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.8 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 2.2 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 0.4 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it added. In a separate report sent to Rigzone this week, 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 by 1.3 million barrels for the week ending March 22. “This compares to a 2.0 million barrel draw for the week ending March 15, with the total U.S. crude balance realizing much looser than we had anticipated, breaking a prolonged stretch of tighter than expected weekly balances,” the strategists said in the report. “Moving to this week, from refineries, we model an increase in crude runs (+0.3 million barrels per day), following yet another strong print last week. Among net imports, we anticipate a large nominal increase, with exports lower on a nominal basis (-0.4 million barrels per day) and imports up (+0.4 million barrels per day),” they added. The strategists warned in the report that “timing of cargoes remains a source of potential volatility in this week’s crude balance”. “From implied domestic supply (prod.+adj.+transfers), we look for a moderate decrease (-0.5 million barrels), following a strong nominal print last week,” they added. “Rounding out the picture, we anticipate a slightly smaller increase in SPR inventory (+0.7 million barrels) on the week,” they went on to state. To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com