Weekly Crude Oil Storage as of March 20, 2020
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: To date, since coronavirus hit the headlines, seasonally-adjusted inventories, that is inventories relative to the five year average have failed to build as we’ve seen relative draws for crude, gasoline and distillates of 19.2 million barrels over the last four weeks and 34.4 million barrels over the last eight weeks. That said, we expect inventories to start to build relative to the five year average in the coming weeks as the demand impact from the pandemic takes hold.
Source: Reuters
U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) increased by 1.6 million barrels from the previous week. At 455.4 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about 3% below the five year average for this time of year, according to the EIA crude oil and petroleum weekly storage data, reporting inventories as of March 20, 2020.
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Summary of weekly petroleum data for the week ending March 20, 2020
U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.8 million barrels per day during the week ending March 20, 2020, which was 18,000 barrels per day more than the previous week’s average. Refineries operated at 87.3% of their operable capacity last week.
- Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.0 million barrels per day.
- Distillate fuel production increased last week, averaging 4.8 million barrels per day.
Imports
U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.1 million barrels per day last week down by 422,000 barrels per day from the previous week. Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.3 million barrels per day, 7.0% less than the same four-week period last year.
Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 834,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 115,000 barrels per day.
Products inventories
- Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 1.5 million barrels last week and are at the five year average for this time of year.
- Finished gasoline inventories decreased while blending components inventories increased last week.
- Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 0.7 million barrels last week and are about 11% below the five year average for this time of year.
- Propane/propylene inventories decreased by 1.8 million barrels last week and are about 31% above the five year average for this time of year.
- Total commercial petroleum inventories increased last week by 2.4 million barrels last week.
Products supplied
Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 21.0 million barrels per day, up by 1.3% from the same period last year. Over the past four weeks:
- Motor gasoline product supplied averaged 9.3 million barrels per day, up by 1.2% from the same period last year.
- Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 4.0 million barrels per day over the past four weeks, down by 5.3% from the same period last year.
- Jet fuel product supplied was down 8.9% compared with the same four-week period last year.
