Weekly Oil Data

Inventories, Exports, Imports, and Refinery Utilization (Two Tables and 13 Charts)

MAIN TAKEAWAY

• The biggest story we focus on today is the massive adjustment number in the EIA’s weekly report. As we have been highlighting in our newsletter, the EIA is still struggling with the large adjustment number despite its investigation, recommendations, and promises to fix the problem.  Our view is that the administration needs to return to an old project it once had in place: Create specific definitions for various crudes and condensates.

• The crude build was a surprise given the expectations of a draw.  While the build is not that large, the difference between the expected and actual is substantial at more than 7 mb.

• There has been another release of 2.5 mb from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) as part of the 26 mb congressionally mandated sales for this year. An additional 9.1 mb will be released between now and the end of June. As we said in previous reports, all the remaining releases have already been priced in. 

• Gasoline inventories continued to decline, and they are currently at their lowest levels since 2014 for this time of the year.

• All eyes are on the much-anticipated meeting of OPEC and its allies on Sunday, June 4.  We will publish a special report before the event.

IN DETAIL