The US Energy Information Administration EIA released its weekly petroleum status report Thursday showing that US commercial Crude Oil inventories increased by 4.1-M bbls last week, bringing the total US commercial Crude Oil inventory to 376.4-M bbls, that is well above the upper limit of the 5-yr range for this time of the year.
Total gasoline inventories decreased by 2.9-M bbls last week and remain in the middle of the 5 yr average range. Total motor gasoline supplied averaged about 8.4-M BPD over the past 4 wks, a rise of about 2.8% compared with the same period a year ago.
Distillate inventories decreased by 2.3-M bbls last week and are near the lower limit of the average range. Distillate product supplied averaged 3.8-M BPD over the past 4 wks, up about 5.5% when compared with the same period last year. Distillate production totaled 4.3-M BPD last week, down about 100,000 BPD when compared with the prior week.
The American Petroleum Institute reported an inventory increase of 2.96 bbls in Crude Oil supplies last week, a decrease of 120,000 bbls in Gasoline supplies and a drop of 1.6-M bbls in distillate supplies.
Platts estimated a build of 2-M bbls in Crude Oil inventories for last week, and Bloomberg estimates called for a Crude Oil inventory build of 2-M bbls.
Crude Oil prices were about down about 2.2% before the EIA report at 94.46, and they quickly fell below 93 a bbl following the report. Crude Oil prices are down sharply over the past several days, but Gasoline prices continue to climb .
For the past week, Crude Oil imports averaged 7.7-M BPD, an increase of about 176,000 BPD from the prior week. Refineries were running at 82.9% of capacity, with daily input of 14.2-M BPD, about 134,000 BPD less than the prior week.
The United States Oil ETF NYSEMKT: USO is down about 1.9%, at 33.51 in a 52-wk range of 29.02 to 42.30.
The United States Gasoline ETF NYSEMKT: UGA is down 0.9%, at 63.72 in a 52-wk range of 45.13 to 65.86.
