By U.S. commercial crude stocks climbed 2.813 million barrels in the week ended January 18, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed Thursday, as refiners cut crude input levels and trimmed utilization.
The climb in crude stocks supported data released by the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Wednesday, which showed a 3.166 million-barrel increase in commercial crude inventories over the same week.
Analysts polled by Platts Monday predicted a 2 million-barrel increase.
The EIA reported total commercial crude stocks at 363.115 million barrels, as inventory levels climbed along the U.S. Gulf Coast (USGC), where commercial stocks rose 5.4 million barrels to bring total inventories to 164.2 million barrels.
The climb in crude stocks was due largely to a cut in oil inputs, which fell nationally by 895,000 barrels per day (b/d) over the reporting week ended January 18. Refiners cut utilization rates in all five reporting districts, though the USGC showed the largest week-on-week change, where commercial crude inputs dropped by 569,000 b/d (7.44%) to 7.078 million barrels.
Refinery utilization dropped 4.3 percentage points nationally to 83.6%. USGC refining utilization dropped 5.6 percentage points to 83.3%.
The drop in refinery utilization outpaced both analyst expectations and data from the API of a drop of 0.6% and 3.7%, respectively.
The climb in crude stocks came despite declines in domestic production and crude oil imports over the reporting week ended January 18. Domestic crude production fell by 52,000 b/d to 6.989 million b/d, dropping by a particularly heavy 50,000 b/d in the lower-48 states.
Commercial crude imports fell 300,000 b/d over the week. Oil imports fell by 196,000 b/d (7.87%) from Canada, 56,000 b/d (5.58%) from Saudi Arabia and 249,000 b/d (27.91%) from Venezuela. At 643,000 b/d, this is the lowest level of Venezuelan crude imports since the week ended July 6, 2011, EIA data show.
Crude stocks at Cushing, Oklahoma, fell 500,000 barrels (0.96%) over the reporting week ended January 18, dropping from a record high of 51.9 million barrels the week previous to 51.4 million barrels.
This is the first EIA inventory report illustrating any possible effects on crude storage in Cushing from the newly-expanded 400,000 b/d Seaway Pipeline. Seaway moves oil from the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) delivery point in Cushing to the refining hub along the USGC.
But recent reports of congestion along the system could cause stocks to start to rebuild, analysts said. Enterprise Products Partners, which operates Seaway, said Wednesday that it reduced nominations on the pipeline to 175,000 b/d due to high inventory at the Jones Creek terminal in Texas.
U.S. gasoline stocks fell 1.738 million barrels to 233.257 million barrels in the week ended January 18, EIA data showed. The draw was led by a 986,000-barrel decline in USGC gasoline stocks, which fell to 82.814 million barrels.
In contrast to the EIA and API data released Wednesday - which showed a similar 1.57 million-barrel decline - analysts polled Monday by Platts expected gasoline stocks to rise 1.6 million barrels.
U.S. Atlantic Coast (USAC) gasoline stocks rose 494,000 barrels to 53.948 million barrels. Despite the build, USAC stocks are still relatively thin, sitting 11.25% below the EIA five-year average and nearly 6 million barrels below year-ago levels. The USAC is home to the New York Harbor-delivered NYMEX RBOB futures contract.
Likewise, gasoline imports, which largely head to the USAC, rose in the week ended January 18, up 55,000 b/d to 430,000 b/d. However, imports are down sharply from 722,000 b/d seen around this time last year, and 29% below last year's four-week moving average, EIA data show.
Supportive of a stock draw, U.S. total gasoline demand rose 111,000 b/d in the week ended January 18 to 8.431 million b/d.
EIA data showed U.S. distillate stocks rose 508,000 barrels to 132.938 million barrels, in line with analysts' expectation of a 750,000-barrel build.
The aggregate build was helped in part by a 1.128 million-barrel increase in USGC distillate stocks, which rose to 40.472 million barrels, the highest since the reporting week ended August 17.
Midwest distillate stocks also jumped, rising 958,000 barrels to 31.37 million barrels.
These increases were offset by a 1.275 million-barrel draw in West Coast distillate stocks, which fell to 15.082 million barrels.
The stock changes were largely a product of changes to ultra low sulfur diesel inventories.
U.S. distillate demand fell 74,000 b/d to 3.372 million b/d.
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