Crude Oil Supply Slides Again, Halts Falling Futures Price

Total gasoline inventories decreased by 1.4 million barrels last week, but remain above the upper limit of the five-year average range. Total motor gasoline supplied (the EIA’s measure of consumption) averaged about 9.1 million barrels a day over the past four weeks — up by 3.1% from the same period a year ago.

Distillate inventories fell by 1.2 million barrels last week and are now near the lower limit of the average range. Distillate product supplied averaged 4 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up about 12% when compared with the same period last year. Distillate production totaled 4.1 million barrels a day last week, up about 1 million barrels a day compared with the prior week.

The American Petroleum Institute last night reported that crude inventories fell by 1.4 million barrels last week, together with a drop of 900,000 barrels in gasoline supplies and a decline of 700,000 barrels in distillate supplies. Platts estimated a drop of 2.6 million barrels in crude inventories, a rise of 800,000 barrels in gasoline inventories and a rise of 1.9 million barrels in distillate inventories.

Crude prices were down about 0.6% before the EIA report at around $106.50 a barrel and climbed a bit to around $106.70 shortly after the report was released.

For the past week, crude imports averaged more than 8 million barrels a day, up about 327,000 barrels a day from the previous week. Refineries were running at 92.3% of capacity, with daily input of 16 million barrels a day, about 200,000 barrels a day less than the previous week.

This marks the fourth straight week of a significant drop in crude stockpiles. But inventories remain quite high and gasoline supply is more than plentiful. According to the AAA Fuel Gauge report, a gallon of regular gasoline costs about $3.67, today compared with about $3.66 a week ago. Last month the price was $3.57 a gallon and one year ago the price of a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.48.

The United States Oil ETF (NYSEMKT: USO) is down 0.4%, at $37.94 in a 52-week range of $30.79 to $38.62.

The United States Gasoline ETF (NYSEMKT: UGA) is up about 0.1%, at $62.03, in a 52-week range of $50.90 to $65.86.

The United States Brent Oil ETF (NYSEMKT: BNO) is down 0.8%, at $82.35 in a 52-week range of $72.68 to $88.71.