According to the latest petroleum and oil weekly report prepared by the Energy Information Administration, there is an analysis of the oil market volatility, in which the implied volatility is still high relative to the historic volatility due to the long terms concerns many energy traders have including the effects of QE3, the tension in the Middle East and Europe’s debt crisis . During last week there was a hike in the U.S stockpiles: the total U.S oil and petroleum stockpiles rose by 11.4 – million bl – this is the highest injection since March 30th; further, crude oil stockpiles also increased by 8.5 million bl. There was a decline in refinery inputs but a rise in production and imports. Finally, the prices of gasoline and diesel in the U.S edged up again during last week. Currently, the price of oil is tumbling down as the injection was much higher than many traders had anticipated.
Here is a weekly update for the week ending on September 14th 2012 of the U.S oil and petroleum market:
Crude Oil Stockpiles
For the week ending on September 14th, U.S. Petroleum and crude oil stockpiles hiked by 11.4 million barrels and reached 1,801.5 million barrels. The current oil stockpiles are slightly higher than the quota as of last year: the current crude oil stockpiles are 27.5 million barrels above oil stockpiles levels of the parallel week during 2011.
U.S. Ending Stocks of crude oil also increased by 8.5 million barrels and reached 1,062.6 million barrels.
The U.S. Ending Stocks of Total Gasoline on the other hand decreased by 0.71% compared with last week’s stocks; it reached 196.3 million barrels.
The chart below 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 -0.173.
Petroleum production refinery inputs and imports (for the week of September 14th)
During last week imports and production increased while refinery inputs declined.
The four week average of U.S. production (million of barrels a day) for the week of September 14th increased to 5.887; it is also 6.7% above the average production at the same week in 2011;
Crude oil imports also rose to 8.986 (for 4 week average) compared with the week of 7/9/2012; they were 2.6% above the average during the same week last year.
The crude oil refinery inputs (4 week average) declined again to 14.806 (million b/d), a 0.9% fall compared with the week of 7/9/2012, and were also 3.3% lower than the same week last year.
Below is a detailed review of the information listed above (for the week of September 14th):
Propane Stocks
Propane stocks rose by 1.322 thousand barrels and reached 74,017 thousand barrels.
Crude Oil, Gasoline and Diesel Prices for the Week Ending on September 14th
The average U.S gasoline retail price increased by 3 cent to $3.88 /g, which is $0.28/g higher than the price during the same week in 2011.
The national average Diesel price nearly didn’t change as it reached $4.14/g; this price is $0.3/g higher than last year’s average price at same time.
A detailed analysis of oil prices for the week ending on September 14th is herein.
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