EIA DATA: Distillate stocks rise at fastest rate in 11 months
Quantum Commodity Intelligence - US distillate fuel stocks built for a third straight week in the last week of November as demand fell amid a a national holiday and refining output rose, weekly EIA data showed Wednesday.
Stocks rose by 3.5 million barrels in the week to 25 November – its sharpest weekly gain in 11 months – to take the total to a nine-week high of 112.6 million barrels.
As big a build as it was, it was largely baked into price with the API signalling a near 4 million barrel rise in the week ending with Thanksgiving in the US.
However, while distillate stocks have sharply recovered over the past two months, they remain more than 20 million barrels, or about 15% below the 2015-2019 average of 134m barrels for this time of year amid tight stocks globally.
Stocks rose as distillate production climbed 4% to 5.31 million bpd, with refiners boosting the utilization rates to 95%, up 1 point on the week.
At the same time deliveries fell 5% to 3.65 million bpd – the lowest level since mid-September as heavy industry and economic output slowed in a seasonal trend.
At the same time, exports rebounded more than 10% to 1.3 million bpd amid fairly static imports.
Jet fuel
While distillate stocks rose, jet stocks fell to a six week low as Americans headed home for the extended holiday weekend.
Stocks dipped 3% to 36.25 million barrels and now stand just 8% below the 2015-2019 pre-Covid five-year average.
Production was largely static, but deliveries were up nearly 15% on the week to 1.7 million bpd.
Week ending 25 November 2022
Key stock figures (million barrels)
Commercial crude and product stocks: 1600 m barrels, -10.2 m barrels on week.
Commercial crude stocks: 419 m barrels, -12.6 m barrels on week.
Strategic crude stocks: 389 m barrels, -1.4 m barrels on week.
Gasoline stocks: 214 m barrels, +2.8 m barrels on week.
Middle distillate stocks: 113 m barrels, +3.5 m barrels on week.
Jet stocks: 36 m barrels, -1.2 m barrels on week.
Diesel stocks: 101 m barrels, +3.7 m barrels on week.
Residual fuel stocks: 30 m barrels, -0.1 m barrels on week.
Propane/propylene stocks: 91 m barrels, +1.6 m barrels on week.
Ethanol stocks: 23 m barrels, +0.1 m barrels on week.
Key demand figures (million barrels per day)
Total oil products: 19.7 million bpd, -0.16 million bpd on week.
Gasoline: 8.3 million bpd, -0.01 million bpd on week.
Jet: 1.7 million bpd, +0.22 million bpd on week.
Middle distillates: 3.7 million bpd, -0.19 million bpd on week.
Residual fuels: 0.3 million bpd, +0.13 million bpd on week.
Propane/propylene: 0.9 million bpd, +0.04 million bpd on week.
Key production and trade figures (million barrels per day)
Crude production: 12.1 million bpd, 0.0 million bpd on week.
Crude imports: 6.0 million bpd, -1.03 million bpd on week.
Crude exports: 4.9 million bpd, +0.71 million bpd on week.
Product imports: 1.9 million bpd, +0.3 million bpd on week.
Product exports: 6.8 million bpd, +1.14 million bpd on week.
