According to this week’s petroleum and oil weekly update prepared by the Energy Information Administration, there is an analysis on the effect of the recent drought on the Ethanol market and by extension of the gasoline prices. During last week there was a decline in the U.S stockpiles: the total U.S oil and petroleum stockpiles decreased during last week by 1 million bl; further, crude oil stockpiles also dropped by 3.7 million bl. There was a decrease in refinery inputs and production while imports remained unchanged. Finally, the prices of gasoline and diesel in the U.S hiked again during last week.
Here is a weekly overview for the week ending on August 3rd 2012 of the U.S oil and petroleum market:
Crude Oil Stockpiles
For the week ending on August 3rd, U.S. Petroleum and crude oil stockpiles declined by 1 million barrels and reached 1,800.3 million barrels. The current oil stockpiles are still similar to the quota as of last year: the current crude oil stockpiles are 3.6 million barrels above oil stockpiles levels of the parallel week during 2011.
U.S. Ending Stocks of crude oil also fell by 3.7 million barrels and reached 1,065.8 million barrels.
The U.S. Ending Stocks of Total Gasoline also decreased by 0.87% compared with last week’s stocks; it reached 206.07 million barrels.
The chart presents the changes of petroleum and oil stockpiles and WTI crude oil price between 2008 and 2012. During the last couple of years the lagged linear correlation between WTI oil price and current oil stockpiles was -0.172.
Petroleum production refinery inputs and imports (for the week of August 3rd)
During last week refinery inputs and production declined while imports remained unchanged.
The four week average of U.S. production (million of barrels a day) for the week of August 3rd decreased to 6.287; it is 14.2% above the average production at the same week in 2011;
The crude oil refinery inputs (4 week average) decreased to 15.628 (million b/d), a 0.27% drop compared with the week of 27/7/2012, but were 0.7% above the same week last year.
Crude oil imports remained at 8.901 (for 4 week average) compared with the week of 27/7/2012; 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 3rd):
Propane Stocks
Propane stocks rose by 593 thousand barrels and reached 68,56 thousand barrels.
Crude Oil, Gasoline and Diesel Prices for the Week Ending on August 3rd
The average U.S. gasoline retail price hiked by 14 cents to $3.65 /g – $0.05/g lower than the price during the same week in 2011.
The national average Diesel price also rose by 5 cent to $3.85/g; this price is $0.05/g below last year’s average price at same time.
A detailed analysis of oil prices for the week ending on August 3rd is herein.
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