US crude oil inventories for the week ended Feb. 26, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, increased by 21.6 million bbl from the previous week, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration.
At 484.6 million bbl, US crude oil inventories are about 3% above the 5-year average for this time of year, the EIA report indicated.
EIA said total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 13.6 million bbl from last week and are about 3% below the 5-year range for this time of year. Finished gasoline and blending component inventories both decreased last week. Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 9.7 million bbl last week and are about 2% below the 5-year average for this time of year.
Propane-propylene inventories decreased by 2.2 million bbl last week and are about 17% below the 5-year average for this time of year, EIA said.
The week’s numbers “were largely distorted by the freeze-induced outages affecting refineries in PADD III, where stocks increased 20.85 MMbbl,” noted AEGIS in a market update. “Total US refinery utilization fell another 12% last week to bring the rate to 56%, per the EIA,” the note continued, causing gasoline inventories to decline by 13.62 MMbbls—the largest drawdown in stocks since 1990, it said.
US refinery inputs averaged 9.9 million b/d for the week ended Feb. 26, about 2.3 million b/d less than the previous week’s average. Refineries operated at 56.0% of capacity.
Gasoline production increased, averaging 8.3 million b/d. Distillate fuel production decreased, averaging 2.9 million b/d.
US crude oil imports averaged 6.3 million b/d, up 1.7 million b/d from the previous week. Over the last 4 weeks, crude oil imports averaged 5.7 million b/d, 12.8% less than the same period last year. Total motor gasoline imports averaged 605,000 b/d. Distillate fuel imports averaged 321,000 b/d.