Refinery shutdowns and slowdowns on the US Gulf Coast caused by Tropical Storm and Hurricane Harvey caused the first US crude oil inventory gain in weeks, while gasoline stockpiles experienced a drawdown in relief of the decreased refining capacity.
Commercial crude inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, rose 4.6 million bbl during the week ended Sept. 1 compared with the previous week’s total, according to the US Energy Information Administration’s Weekly Petroleum Status Report.
At 462.4 million bbl, US crude inventories remain in the upper half of the average range for this time of year. Stockpiles fell 5.4 million bbl during the previous week (OGJ Online, Aug. 31, 2017).
EIA said total motor gasoline inventories dropped 3.2 million bbl last week but remain near the upper limit of the average range for this time of year. Distillate fuel inventories decreased 1.4 million bbl but are in the upper half of the average range for this time of year.
In its own data, the American Petroleum Institute estimated that US crude stockpiles increased 2.8 million bbl during the week ended Sept. 1, while gasoline inventories declined 2.5 million bbl and distillate inventories decreased 603,000 bbl.
EIA said US crude refinery inputs last week averaged 14.5 million b/d, down 3.3 million b/d from the previous week’s average. Refineries operated at 79.7% of their operable capacity.
US crude imports averaged 7.1 million b/d, down 822,000 b/d from the previous week’s average.
With production shut-in at many offshore platforms as well as by many operators in the Eagle Ford shale of South Texas, overall US crude production plunged 749,000 b/d last week to 8.78 million b/d, EIA reported.
