USA Crude Oil Stocks Drop 5.1MM Barrels WoW

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 5.1 million barrels from the week ending November 22 to the week ending November 29, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report.

The EIA report, which was released late December 4 and included data for the week ending November 29, showed that crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 423.4 million barrels on November 29, 428.4 million barrels on November 22, and 445.0 million barrels on December 1, 2023. The EIA report highlighted that data may not add up to totals due to independent rounding.

Crude oil in the SPR stood at 391.8 million barrels on November 29, 390.4 million barrels on November 22, and 351.9 million barrels on December 1, 2023, the report showed.

Total petroleum stocks - 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 1.629 billion barrels on November 29, the report revealed. This figure was down 3.3 million barrels week on week and up 7.9 million barrels year on year, the report outlined.

“At 423.4 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about five percent below the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA noted in its latest weekly petroleum status report.

“Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 2.4 million barrels from last week and are about four 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 increased by 3.4 million barrels last week and are about five percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories decreased by 0.7 million barrels from last week and are 10 percent above the five year average for this time of year,” it continued.

In the report, the EIA said U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.9 million barrels per day during the week ending November 29. It highlighted that this was 615,000 barrels per day more than the previous week’s average.

“Refineries operated at 93.3 percent of their operable capacity last week. Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.5 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production increased last week, averaging 5.3 million barrels per day,” the EIA stated in the report.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 7.3 million barrels per day last week, according to the report, which pointed out that this was an increase of 1.2 million barrels per day from the previous week.

“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.9 million barrels per day, 5.0 percent more than the same four-week period last year,” the EIA noted in its report.

“Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 511,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 116,000 barrels per day,” it added.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.4 million barrels a day, up by 4.0 percent from the same period last year, the EIA stated in its latest weekly petroleum status report.

“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.8 million barrels a day, up by 2.8 percent from the same period last year,” it added.

“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.7 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, even with the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 7.1 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it went on to state.

The EIA also noted in its latest weekly petroleum status report that the national average retail price for regular gasoline declined to $3.034 per gallon on December 2, “$0.010 below last week’s price, and $0.197 less than the year ago price”.

“The national average retail diesel fuel price rose $0.001 to $3.540 per gallon, $0.552 lower than the price one year ago,” it added.

According to the AAA Fuel Prices website, the average regular gasoline price in the U.S. is $3.026 per gallon and the average diesel price in the country is $3.531 per gallon, as of December 6.

In a report sent to Rigzone by the Macquarie team late Monday, Macquarie strategists revealed that they were forecasting that U.S. crude inventories would be down one million barrels for the week ending November 29.

“This compares to our early look for the week which anticipated a 0.5 million barrel build, and a 1.8 million barrel draw realized for the week ending November 22,” the strategists said in that report.

To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com