EIA DATA: Gasoline stocks draw on demand surge before storm
Quantum Commodity Intelligence - US gasoline stocks fell for the first time since early November last week, as demand hit a three month high in the days leading up to a severe arctic storm.
Gasoline inventories fell 1.4% to 223 million barrels in the week to 23 December, according to the latest EIA data, around flat with the same time last year.
Draws were concentrated on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, down a combined 5 million barrels, where freezing temperatures caused major disruption over the holiday period.
Panic buying and a rush to fill up before busy Christmas holidays helped push implied gasoline demand up 7.7% on the week to 9.3 million bpd, its highest since the end of September but still around 4% below the same time last year.
Stocks fell despite a fall in net exports, as a 3% fall in imports to 536,000 bpd was outweighed by a slightly higher 3.5% drop in exports to 856,000 bpd.
The transatlantic arb has tailed off lately, the RBOB-EBOB spread hitting a five-week low around $0.20/gal this week.
That is despite a jump in US gasoline cracks, as RBOB gasoline's premium to ICE Brent rose to three-month highs of above $16/b on Thursday.
The winter storms knocked out around 20% of US Gulf refining capacity and although most are to be back online shortly, it will likely be a few weeks before the refining hub returns to full capacity.
Key stock figures (million barrels)
Gasoline stocks: 223 m barrels, -3.1 m barrels on week.
Middle distillate stocks: 120 m barrels, +0.3 m barrels on week.
Jet stocks: 36 m barrels, -0.2 m barrels on week.
Diesel stocks: 109 m barrels, -0.0 m barrels on week.
Residual fuel stocks: 30 m barrels, +1.0 m barrels on week.
Propane/propylene stocks: 84 m barrels, -3.0 m barrels on week.
Ethanol stocks: 25 m barrels, +0.6 m barrels on week.
Key demand figures (million barrels per day)
Total oil products: 22.8 million bpd, +1.9 million bpd on week.
Gasoline: 9.3 million bpd, +0.61 million bpd on week.
Jet: 1.5 million bpd, -0.19 million bpd on week.
Middle distillates: 3.9 million bpd, -0.14 million bpd on week.
Residual fuels: 0.1 million bpd, -0.13 million bpd on week.
Propane/propylene: 1.7 million bpd, -0.04 million bpd on week.
Key production and trade figures (million barrels per day)
Product imports: 2.2 million bpd, +0.29 million bpd on week.
Product exports: 5.8 million bpd, -0.59 million bpd on week.
Key refining figures (million barrels per day)
Net crude input into refineries: 16.1 million bpd, +0.17 million bpd on week.
Utilisation: 92.0%, +1.1% point on week.
Finished gasoline output: 10.0 million bpd, +0.49 million bpd on week.
Jet output: 1.6 million bpd, -0.1 million bpd on week.
Middle distillates output: 5.1 million bpd, -0.02 million bpd on week.
Diesel output: 4.8 million bpd, -0.04 million bpd on week.
Fuel oil output: 0.3 million bpd, +0.02 million bpd on week.
