The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its weekly petroleum status report this morning. US commercial crude inventories decreased by 1 million barrels last week, bringing the total US commercial crude inventory to 371.6 million barrels, still well above the upper limit of the five-year range for this time of the year.

Total gasoline inventories rose by 2.2 million barrels last week and are now above the upper limit of the five-year average range. Total motor gasoline supplied averaged 8.5 million barrels a day over the past four weeks — a decline of 2.9% compared with the same period a year ago.

Distillate inventories fell by 1.1 million barrels again last week, and remain well below the lower limit of the average range. Distillate product supplied averaged more than 3.8 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down 2.7% when compared with the same period last year. Distillate production totaled nearly 4.9 million barrels a day last week, down slightly compared with the prior week.

The American Petroleum Institute reported an inventory draw of 4.1 million barrels in crude supplies last week. Platts estimated a drawdown of 2.3 million barrels in crude inventories for last week, with a build of 2 million barrels in gasoline supplies and a rise of 1.5 million barrels in distillate supplies. Dow Jones estimated a drop of 900,000 barrels in crude stocks, a rise of 1.5 million barrels in gasoline supplies, and a rise of 900,000 barrels in distillate inventories.

Crude prices were higher before the EIA report at $88.40 a barrel and held steady following the report.

For the past week, crude imports averaged 8.4 million barrels a day, an decrease of about 100,000 barrels a day from the previous week. Refineries were running at 91.5% of capacity, with daily input of 15.6 million barrels a day, about 227,000 barrels a day more than the previous week.

The United States Oil ETF (NYSEMKT: USO) is up 0.7% at $32.29 in a 52-week range of $29.02 to $42.30.

The United States Gasoline ETF (NYSEMKT: UGA) is up about 0.8% at $57.26. The 52-week range is $45.13 to $62.13.

Paul Ausick

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