Analysis of U.S. EIA Data- U.S. oil stocks climb to 31-month high

Linda Rafield, Platts

Across-the-board stocks builds left total U.S. petroleum inventories at a 31-month high of 1.074 billion barrels, a sign of weak demand and sufficient supply, an analysis of the weekly data from the U.S.   Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed today.

At 1.074 billion barrels for the reporting week ending April 17, the total petroleum stocks were 108.04 million barrels above the five-year average and 115.029 million barrels above year-ago levels.

U.S. crude stocks increased 3.857 million barrels to 370.600 million barrels. The crude stock build reported by EIA put inventories in line with the American Petroleum Institute, which reported a 1.008 million-barrel decline in crude inventories to 370.239 million barrels late Tuesday.

At 370.600 million barrels, U.S. crude stocks were 46.867 million barrels above the five-year average and 54.5 million barrels above year-ago levels. Breaking a four-week string of declines, stocks at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) oil futures contract delivery point at Cushing , Oklahoma , rose 309,000 barrels to 29.542 million barrels. The bulk of this week's crude stock build was along the Gulf Coast, where inventories increased 4.9 million barrels to 195.2 million barrels, leaving stocks in that region just 2.784 million barrels below the all-time high of 197.998 million barrels the week ending July 13, 2007.

A jump in crude imports of 464,000 barrels per day (b/d) to 9.855 million b/d contributed to the stock build. Imports climbed in every region except on the Atlantic Coast . And, despite a 529,000 b/d increase in crude refinery runs to 14.516 million b/d, inputs were still at a low enough level to allow stocks to increase. The majority of the increase in runs was concentrated in the Midwest and the Atlantic Coast in connection with refinery restarts.

Gasoline stocks edged up just 802,000 b/d to 217.3 million barrels, while inventories of middle distillate rose a larger-than-expected 2.682 million barrels to 142.311 million barrels. Inventories of jet fuel climbed 400,000 barrels to 39.7 million barrels, while stocks of residual fuel oil inched up 100,000 barrels to 36.3 million barrels. Unfinished and other oils also increased as demand levels remained at low enough levels to keep the current stock-building trend intact.

Total U.S. oil demand, at 14.464 million b/d on a four-week moving average,

was 6.5% below year-ago levels. This is a 1.3 percentage-point decline from the previous week's report. Week-over-week, total U.S. oil demand at 18.16 million b/d was the lowest reading since the week ending September 21, 2001—just shortly after the terror attacks on New York and Washington that briefly sent the U.S. economy into a downturn.

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