US oil imports in November hit their lowest level in 9 months because the federal government released 600,000 b/d of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
American Petroleum Institute noted that US crude imports averaged 8.34 million b/d in November, compared with 8.94 million b/d for the year to date through October and the lowest level since last February.
Product imports remained high at nearly 2.3 million b/d, so total crude and products imports still rose by 6% from November 1999.
API, in its monthly statistical report, said total US deliveries jumped more than 4% in November to 19.9 million b/d compared with a year ago. Increases for all the major products contributed to the 775,000 b/d increase.
Gasoline deliveries continued to grow at about the same rate as in recent months, while growth for distillate deliveries slowed to less than 4%, despite weather colder than a year ago. Kerosine jet fuel deliveries jumped over 7%, and residual fuel oil deliveries continued to benefit from the fact that electric utilities and industrial users were switching from gas due to sharply higher prices.
Refinery inputs reached a record in November, rising 2.2% from a year earlier. Strong emphasis on distillate production led to an increase for that product of 5.5% to 3.8 million b/d, compared with year-earlier levels, and set a record for November.
Production of the other major products also rose. Gasoline output also surpassed any previous November level, while residual fuel oil production achieved its highest level for any month in nearly 2 years. It was up 32% at 791,000 b/d.
Inventories, production
Following a smaller rise in October, US crude oil inventories gained another 6 million bbl in November. Still, they remained the lowest for the month since the 1970s, as market uncertainties made the holding of inventory beyond current needs risky.
Distillate inventories rose 5 million bbl during November to surpass the 120 million bbl mark for the first time this year. They still remained slightly below the range of the previous five Novembers, during which distillate inventories have ended the month at 122-155 million bbl.
Gasoline inventories erased a large portion of their previous month's decline during November, building by 7 million bbl to close the month at 197 million bbl.
US crude oil production declined in November to 5.9 million b/d, down 1.8% from November 1999. Declines were noted for both the Lower 48 and Alaska.
In Alaska, Alpine field came on stream in midmonth, reportedly adding 35,000-40,000 b/d to production there. However, Alaskan output still fell more than 6%.
