EIA: U.S. Crude Stocks Surge 16M Bbl; Products Down

SECAUCUS, NJ (DTN) – U.S. commercial crude oil stocks had their largest weekly jump in three years last week while gasoline and distillate inventories fell for a second consecutive week, Energy Information Administration (EIA) data showed Wednesday (2/25).

Crude stocks surged by 16 million bbl to 435.8 bbl during the week ended February 20, the EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report showed. The agency’s historical data showed that to be the largest weekly build in crude since the week ended February 10, when the EIA reported an increase of 16.3 million bbl.

The EIA’s reporting of oil inventories has swung wildly over the past month in the wake of two major snow blizzards that blanketed much of the U.S. Midwest and Northeast.

Storm Fern, which broke out on January 23, disrupted an estimated production of between 1.5 million and 2 million bpd in the Permian Basin over several days.

No assessment has been made yet on the impact of Winter Storm Hernando, which landed on Feb. 23 – three days after the EIA’s latest inventory reporting period – though analysts said output outages may be inevitable.

Last week’s crude stock rise was accompanied by a 900,000 bbl build at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery point for NYMEX West Texas Intermediate futures. In the prior week, Cushing inventories saw a drop of 1.1 mln bbl.

Total motor gasoline inventories fell by 1.0 million bbl to 254.8 million, adding to the previous week’s slide of 3.3 million bbl. The back-to-back decline in gasoline balances ended a prior streak of 13 weekly builds in the product between November and February.

Blending components for gasoline slid by 500,000 bbl to 241 million, adding to the prior weekly drop of 2.3 million. Conventional gasoline stocks fell by 1.6 million bbl to 13.8 million bbl after the prior slip of 800,000 bbl.

Distillate fuel oil inventories retreated by 300,000 bbl, on top of the previous week’s 4.6 million tumble.

Refinery utilization fell to 88.6% of operable capacity, versus a prior 91%, amid the maintenance season typical at crude processing plants during this time of year. Crude oil inputs into refineries averaged 15.66 million bpd, compared with the previous 16.08 million.

Crude oil exports averaged 4.3 million bpd, down 277,000 bpd from the prior week, while crude imports rose by 135,000 bpd to 6.66 million.

Total products supplied over the last four weeks averaged 21.023 million bpd, up 3.4% from the same period a year earlier. Gasoline demand last week averaged 8.4 million bpd, up 0.8% from the same period last year, while distillate demand averaged 4.137 million bpd, higher by 0.1% from the same period last year.