Averaging just below 19 million b/d, total US petroleum deliveries in October, increased 1.3% from a year earlier, according to the American Petroleum Institute’s monthly statistics for October.
“Domestic crude oil production hit a 25-year October high last month while imports fell to a 17-year October low,” said API Chief Economist John Felmy. “The United States continues to meet more and more of its demand with energy produced here at home.”
Gasoline deliveries were up 2.6% from October 2012 to average 8.9 million b/d, marking the highest October demand since 2010. Over the same period, distillate demand grew 3.3% to just below 4 million b/d and deliveries of “other oils” rose 3.4%. Deliveries of residual fuel decreased 38.3% from a year ago to an all-time low of 192,000 b/d.
Due to turnaround and maintenance, gross refinery inputs in October fell 4.9% from September, reaching a 6-month low. Exports of refined petroleum products were nearly 3.6 million b/d, 2.7% down from September but 9.2% up from last October.
US crude oil production averaged nearly 7.8 million b/d in October, 11.7% up from October 2012 but 0.1% down from September. This was the highest level for the month in 25 years. The number of oil and gas rigs in the US in October was 1,744, down from September count of 1,760, marking the lowest count since March 2011.
Production of gasoline fell 2.2% from last year to just above 8.9 million b/d, while production of distillate fuel was up by 9.5% from last year to reach an all-time high of 4.9 million b/d, API reported.
Crude oil stocks rose 1.6% from last October to 382.2 million bbl, hitting the highest October inventory level in 83 years since 1930. October stocks of motor gasoline and distillate fuel oil were respectively 212 million bbl and 121.8 million bbl, up 4.4% and 2.7% from last year.
“US total imports and crude oil imports both fell to their lowest October levels in 17 years last month. Total imports dropped 0.1% to average just over 10 million b/d in October while crude oil imports fell 0.5% to 8.1 million b/d,” API said, adding, “Imports of refined products increased by 1.4% from October 2012 to average just below 2 million b/d. This was the second lowest level for the month in 16 years.”
The refinery capacity utilization rate averaged 86.4% in October. API’s latest refinery operable capacity was 17.8 million b/d, up 2.4% from last year’s capacity of 17.4 million b/d.
