In the recent petroleum and crude oil weekly update of the Energy Information Administration petroleum, crude oil stockpiles rose again for the third consecutive week, last week by 12.36 million barrels. Crude oil prices didn’t move much last week but they did tumble down during yesterday’s trading probably due to the shift in market sentiment regarding the possibility of making another stimulus plan by the Fed. In this week’s EIA update there is an analysis about the potential effect of a reduction in oil refineries in the Northeast on the petroleum market.
Here is a weekly summary for the week ending on March 30th 2012 of the U.S. oil and petroleum market:
Crude oil Stockpiles
U.S. Petroleum and crude oil stockpiles sharply increased again during last week by 12.366 million barrels, or by 0.70%. For the week ending on March 30th petroleum and crude oil stockpiles reached 1,769.782 million barrels. The current oil stockpiles are below the quota from last year: the current crude oil stockpiles are 12.366 million barrels below oil stockpiles levels recorded during the parallel week in 2011.
U.S. Ending Stocks of crude oil also increased by 9.0 million barrels and reached 1,058.35 million barrels.
Furthermore, U.S. Ending Stocks of Total Gasoline decreased by 0.65% compared with last week’s stocks; it reached 221.913 million barrels.
The chart below presents the developments in petroleum and oil stockpiles and WTI crude oil price between 2010 and 2012. During said years the lagged linear correlation between WTI oil price and current oil stockpiles was -0.139.
Petroleum production and imports (for the week of March 30th)
Oil imports, oil refinery inputs and oil production rose during last week.
The four week average of U.S. production (million of barrels a day) for the week of March 30th reached at 5.882; it is 5.2% above the average production at the same week in 2011;
Crude oil imports increased last week by 3% to 8.996 (for 4 week average) compared with the week of 23/3/2012; they were 0.7% above the average during the same week last year.
The crude oil refinery inputs (4 week average) reached 14.507 (million b/d), a 0.28% increase compared with the week of 23/3/2012, and were 1.4% above the same time last year.
Below is a detailed recap of the information listed above (for the week of March 30th):
Propane Stocks
Propane stocks rose by 1,074 thousand barrels and reached 44,783 thousand barrels.
Crude Oil, Gasoline and Diesel Prices for the Week Ending on March 30th
The average U.S.gasoline retail price increased by 2.3 cents to $3.94 /g, – $0.26 /g higher than the price during the same week in 2011.
The national average Diesel price also decreased by 0.5 cent to $4.14/g, which is $0.17/g higher than last year’s average price at same time.
For further reading: