According to the recent petroleum and oil weekly report done by the Energy Information Administration, there is an analysis on the crude oil inventories and the tightening of the oil market. During last week there was a rise in the U.S stockpiles: the total U.S oil and petroleum stockpiles rose by 4.6 million bl; further, crude oil stockpiles also increased by 3.8 million bl. There was a decline in refinery inputs and production but a rise in imports. Finally, the prices of gasoline and diesel in the U.S rose again during last week.
Here is a weekly overview for the week ending on August 24th 2012 of the U.S oil and petroleum market:
Crude Oil Stockpiles
For the week ending on August 24th, U.S. Petroleum and crude oil stockpiles changed direction and rose by 4.6 million barrels and reached 1,797.3 million barrels. The current oil stockpiles are still similar to the quota as of last year: the current crude oil stockpiles are 3.2 million barrels above oil stockpiles levels of the parallel week during 2011.
U.S. Ending Stocks of crude oil also rose by 3.7 million barrels and reached 1,060.5 million barrels.
The U.S. Ending Stocks of Total Gasoline on the other hand decreased by 0.74% compared with last week’s stocks; it reached 201.2 million barrels.
The chart shows the changes of petroleum and oil stockpiles and WTI crude oil price between the years 2008 and 2012. During the last couple of years the lagged linear correlation between WTI oil price and current oil stockpiles was -0.176.
Petroleum production refinery inputs and imports (for the week of August 24th)
During last week imports rose while refinery inputs and production declined.
The four week average of U.S. production (million of barrels a day) for the week of August 24th decreased to 6.226; it is still 11.8% above the average production at the same week in 2011;
The crude oil refinery inputs (4 week average) also declined to 15.534 (million b/d), a 0.3% fall compared with the week of 17/8/2012, and were nearly the same level as the same week last year.
Crude oil imports rose to 8.762 (for 4 week average) compared with the week of 17/8/2012; they were 4.8% below the average during the same week last year.
Below is a detailed review of the information listed above (for the week of August 24th):
Propane Stocks
Propane stocks increased by 716 thousand barrels and reached 71,658 thousand barrels.
Crude Oil, Gasoline and Diesel Prices for the Week Ending on August 24th
The average U.S gasoline retail price rose again by 3 cents to $3.78 /g – $0.15/g higher than the price during the same week in 2011.
The national average Diesel price also rose by 6 cent to $4.09/g; this price is $0.27/g higher than last year’s average price at same time.
A detailed analysis of oil prices for the week ending on August 24th is herein.
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