US commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, fell 4.7 million bbl during the week ended July 14 compared with the previous week’s total, according to the US Energy Information Administration’s Weekly Petroleum Status Report.
At 490.6 million bbl, US crude inventories are in the upper half of the average range for this time of year. For the previous week, EIA said stockpiles dropped 7.6 million bbl, the largest decline in 10 months (OGJ Online, July 12, 2017).
Analysts and traders surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected EIA to report a 3.1 million-bbl drop for the week ended July 14.
The American Petroleum Institute, meanwhile, reported an oil-stockpile increase of 1.6 million bbl for the week, with gasoline inventories falling 5.4 million bbl and distillate losing 2.9 million bbl.
EIA said total motor gasoline inventories declined 4.4 million bbl but are in the upper half of the average range. Both finished gasoline inventories and blending components inventories decreased.
Distillate fuel inventories lost 2.1 million bbl last week but are near the upper limit of the average range for this time of year. Propane-propylene inventories increased 3.5 million bbl but are in the lower half of the average range. Total commercial petroleum inventories fell 10.2 million bbl.
US crude refinery inputs last week averaged 17.1 million b/d, down 125,000 b/d from the previous week’s average. Refineries operated at 94% of their operable capacity.
Both gasoline production and distillate fuel production decreased to 10.1 million b/d and 4.9 million b/d, respectively.
US crude imports averaged 8 million b/d, up 386,000 b/d from the previous week’s average. Over the last 4 weeks, crude imports averaged 7.8 million b/d, down 1.7% from the same 4-week period last year.
Total motor gasoline imports, including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components, averaged 591,000 b/d. Distillate fuel imports averaged 126,000 b/d last week.
EIA’s preliminary estimate of US crude production for the week ended July 14 shows a 32,000-b/d increase to 9.43 million b/d, up 935,000 b/d year-over-year. The Lower 48 added 30,000 b/d while Alaska rose 2,000 b/d.
