US Petroleum Inventories Jump, Imports Rise Too

The American Petroleum Institute estimated late Tuesday that crude inventories rose 521,000 barrels while analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., had predicted an inventory increase of 1 million barrels.

Total gasoline inventories fell by 1.6 million barrels last week and remain in the upper limit of the five-year average range. Over the last four weeks, gasoline supplied has declined by -6.7% compared to the same period last year. Total motor gasoline supplied averaged just under 8.3 million barrels/day for the four weeks.

For the past week, crude imports totaled 9.2 million barrels/day, up by 96,000 barrels/day from the previous week. Refineries were running at 83.6% of capacity, with daily input of nearly 14.6 million barrels/day, down by 282,000 barrels/day from the previous week.

Higher inventories and the decline in gasoline supplied indicate demand continues to fall in the US. Higher import levels could be a sign that refiners are exporting more refined products, but to say that the increase in imports is counter-intuitive is not an overstatement.

According to gasbuddy.com, US gasoline prices average $3.685/gallon today, compared with a pump price of $3.57 a week ago.