According to the recent petroleum and oil weekly report prepared by the Energy Information Administration, there is an analysis on the future narrowing of the gap between Brent and WTI oil. During last week there was a rise in the U.S stockpiles: the total U.S oil and petroleum stockpiles increased by 2.3 million bl; further, crude oil stockpiles also increased by 1 million bl. There was a drop in refinery inputs, production and imports. Finally, the prices of gasoline and diesel in the U.S edged up during last week.
Here is a weekly review for the week ending on September 7th 2012 of the U.S oil and petroleum market:
Crude Oil Stockpiles
For the week ending on September 7th, U.S. Petroleum and crude oil stockpiles changed direction again and rose by 2.35 million barrels and reached 1,790.08 million barrels. The current oil stockpiles are slightly higher than the quota as of last year: the current crude oil stockpiles are 10.8 million barrels above oil stockpiles levels of the parallel week during 2011.
U.S. Ending Stocks of crude oil also rose by 1 million barrels and reached 1,054.04 million barrels.
The U.S. Ending Stocks of Total Gasoline also decreased by 0.59% compared with last week’s stocks; it reached 197.7 million barrels.
The chart below shows the shifts 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 -0.175.
Petroleum production refinery inputs and imports (for the week of September 7th)
During last week imports refinery inputs and production decreased. This decline might be due to the adverse effect of Hurricane Isaac.
The four week average of U.S. production (million of barrels a day) for the week of September 7th decreased to 5.879; it is still 7.3% above the average production at the same week in 2011;
The crude oil refinery inputs (4 week average) also declined to 14.937 (million b/d), a 2.3% fall compared with the week of 31/8/2012, and were also 3% lower than the same week last year.
Crude oil imports fell to 8.576 (for 4 week average) compared with the week of 31/8/2012; they were 3.4% below the average during the same week last year.
Below is a detailed review of the information listed above (for the week of September 7th):
Propane Stocks
Propane stocks rose by 199 thousand barrels and reached 72,695 thousand barrels.
Crude Oil, Gasoline and Diesel Prices for the Week Ending on September 7th
The average U.S gasoline retail price rose by 1 cent to $3.85 /g – $0.19/g higher than the price during the same week in 2011.
The national average Diesel price remained at $4.13/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 September 7th is herein.
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