US Weekly Oil Data

US Inventories, Exports, Imports, and Refinery Utilization (Two Tables and 9 Charts)

MAIN TAKEAWAY

1. Crude and distillate inventories increased but oil prices also increased and remained above $80 at the time of this writing.  

2. The SPR releases are coming to a close. Only 0.4 mb was withdrawn last week. An additional 1.0 mb is still due to be released.

3. Despite a lot of noise in the weekly data, the large declines in demand, imports, and exports cannot be ignored, especially gasoline and distillates.  However, we expect to see more crude draws. The large decline in exports contributed to this week’s large build.

4. We pointed out last week that the vanishing “adjustment” does not mean the EIA fixed the problem. Large swings are a concern too. Today is a case in point: the adjustment was large: 9.9 mb.

IN DETAIL