Following a down week, US crude oil inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, were back up for the week ended Mar. 23, according to US Energy Information Administration data. Inventories increased by 1.6 million bbl, EIA said.
The latest estimate is 429.9 million bbl, putting oil in storage in the lower half of the average range for this time of year, the Weekly Petroleum Status Report indicated.
The report said total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 3.5 million bbl but are in the upper half of the average range. Finished gasoline inventories remained unchanged while blending components inventories decreased last week. Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 2.1 million bbl last week and are in the lower half of the average range for this time of year.
Propane-propylene remain in the lower half of the average range with a decrease of 1.2 million bbl last week, EIA said.
US refinery inputs averaged 16.8 million b/d for the week ended Mar. 23, about 18,000 b/d higher than the previous week’s average. Refineries operated at 92.3% of capacity.
Gasoline production increased, averaging 10.3 million b/d. Distillate fuel production increased, averaging 4.8 million b/d.
US crude oil imports averaged 8.1 million b/d, up 1.1 million b/d from the previous week. Over the last 4 weeks, crude oil imports averaged 7.7 million b/d, 4% less than the same period last year. Total motor gasoline imports averaged 685,000 b/d. Distillate fuel imports averaged 150,000 b/d.
The American Petroleum Institute separately reported US crude stockpiles last week were up 5.3 million bbl, while gasoline inventories dropped 5.8 million bbl.
