Oil Stockpiles Sharply Increased by 6.3 M Bbl – March 28

According to the recent petroleum and crude oil weekly update of the Energy Information Administration petroleum, crude oil stockpiles sharply rose by 6.3 million barrels. Crude oil prices also didn’t move much last week and edged up. In this week’s EIA update there is an analysis on the U.S refined oil products exports to Mexico.

Here is a weekly summary for the week ending on March 23rd 2012 of the U.S. oil and petroleum market:

Crude oil Stockpiles

U.S. Petroleum and crude oil stockpiles sharply rose again during last week by 6.3 million barrels, or by 0.36%. For the week ending on March 23rd petroleum and crude oil stockpiles reached 1,757.416 million barrels. The current oil stockpiles are below the quota from last year: the current crude oil stockpiles are 11.245 million barrels below oil stockpiles levels recorded during the parallel week in 2011.

U.S. Ending Stocks of crude oil also increased by 7.1 million barrels and reached 1,049.341 million barrels.

 Ending Stocks of crude oil also increased by 7.1 million barrels and reached 1,049.341 million barrels.

Furthermore, U.S. Ending Stocks of Total Gasoline decreased by 1.56% compared with last week’s stocks; it reached 223.37 million barrels.

The chart below shows 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 -0.133.

Weekly U.S. Ending Stocks Crude Oil and WTI spot oil price 2012 MARCH 28Petroleum production and imports (for the week of March 23rd)

Oil imports rose last week, oil refinery inputs slightly decreased and oil production remained unchanged during last week.

The four week average of U.S. production (million of barrels a day) for the week of March 23rd remained at 5.821; it is 4.3% above the average production at the same week in 2011;

Crude oil imports increased last week by 0.2% to 8.71 (for 4 week average) compared with the week of 16/3/2012; they were 0.5% below the average during the same week last year.

The crude oil refinery inputs (4 week average) reached 14.467 (million b/d), a 0.27% decrease compared with the week of 16/3/2012, and were 1.9% above the same time last year.

Below is a detailed recap of the information listed above (for the week of March 23rd):

Crude Oil Production and Imports Crude Oil Refinery Inputs 2012 MARCH 28Propane Stocks

Propane stocks rose by 979 thousand barrels and reached 43,709 thousand barrels.

Crude Oil, Gasoline and Diesel Prices for the Week Ending on March 23rd

The average U.S. gasoline retail price increased by 5.1 cents to $3.92 /g, – $0.32 /g higher than the price during the same week in 2011.

The national average Diesel price also increased by 0.5 cent to $4.15/g, which is $0.22/g higher than last year’s average price at same time.

A detailed analysis of crude oil prices for the week ending on March 23rd is herein.

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