In this week’s petroleum and oil weekly update done the Energy Information Administration, it was stated that the current crude oil inventories located at the Cushing, Oklahoma storage hub are at a record high levels of 45.1 million barrels. The total U.S oil stockpiles slightly rose during the previous week by 2.8 million bl. There was also an increase in imports, production and refinery inputs. This build up in stockpiles coincides with the descent of crude oil prices. Finally, the prices of gasoline and diesel in the U.S also declined during last week.
Here is a weekly recap for the week ending on May 11th 2012 of the U.S crude oil and petroleum market:
Crude oil Stockpiles
For the week ending on May 11th, U.S. Petroleum and crude oil stockpiles increased again by 2.8 million barrels and reached 1,769.922 million barrels. The current oil stockpiles are slightly below the quota from last year: the current crude oil stockpiles are 4 million barrels below oil stockpiles levels recorded during the parallel week during 2011.
U.S. Ending Stocks of crude oil also rose again by 2.1 million barrels and reached 1,077.595 million barrels.
On the other hand, U.S. Ending Stocks of Total Gasoline fell by 1.35% compared with last week’s stocks; it reached 204.3 million barrels.
The chart below shows the recent developments in petroleum and oil stockpiles and WTI crude oil price between the years 2010 and 2012. During the past couple of years the lagged linear correlation between WTI oil price and current oil stockpiles remained at -0.152.
Petroleum production and imports (for the week of May 11th)
During last week oil imports refinery inputs and production increased again.
The four week average of U.S. production (million of barrels a day) for the week of May 11th reached at 6.13; it is 9.2% above the average production at the same week in 2011;
Crude oil imports also increased last week by 0.5% to 8.859 (for 4 week average) compared with the week of 4/5/2012; they were 0.7% below the average during the same week last year.
The crude oil refinery inputs (4 week average) reached 14.743 (million b/d), a 1.01% increase compared with the week of 4/5/2012, and were 4.2% above the same time last year.
Below is a detailed recap of the information listed above (for the week of May 11th):
Propane Stocks
Propane stocks rose again by 1,702 thousand barrels and reached 52,725 thousand barrels.
Crude Oil, Gasoline and Diesel Prices for the Week Ending on May 11th
The average U.S. gasoline retail price declined again by 4 cents to $3.75 /g, – $0.21 /g lower than the price during the same week in 2011.
The national average Diesel price also fell again by 5 cent to $4.00/g, which is $0.06/g below last year’s average price at same time.
A detailed analysis of crude oil prices for the week ending on May 11th is herein.
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