US Petroleum Inventories Rise, Imports Rise Slightly

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its weekly petroleum status report this morning. US commercial crude inventories rose by 1.8 million barrels last week, bringing the total US commercial crude inventory to 347.5 million barrels, around the upper limit of the five-year range for this time of the year.

A Platts survey provided a consensus estimate for a weekly inventory gain of 2.1 million barrels. The smaller gain is still likely to push prices down today because the total inventory grew by about 2 million barrels in the week ending March 9th.

Total gasoline inventories fell by 1.4 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 -7.2% compared to the same period last year. Total motor gasoline supplied averaged just under 8.4 million barrels/day for the four weeks.

For the past week, crude imports averaged 8.7 million barrels/day, up by 4,000 barrels/day from the previous week. Refineries were running at 82.7% of capacity, with daily input of nearly 14.5 million barrels/day, down by 126,000 barrels/day from the previous week.

Higher inventories and the decline in gasoline supplied indicate demand continues to fall in the US. The drop in refinery input marks the beginning of the spring turnaround at US refineries.

According to gasbuddy.com, US gasoline prices average $3.782/gallon today, compared with a pump price of $3.719 a week ago.