EIA DATA: US distillate stocks at 1-year high as PADD1 imports hit record
Quantum Commodity Intelligence - US distillate fuel stocks rose for a second straight week to hit their highest in a year as the East Coast (PADD1) imported a record amount last week, offsetting lower domestic output and higher demand.
Nationwide stocks hit 120.5 million barrels by February 3, weekly data from the EIA showed, rising by 2.9 million barrels on the week, its largest weekly gain since early December.
The weekly rise beat the expected 1.1-million-barrel gain put out by the API on Tuesday, while analysts polled by Reuters expected a minor 0.1m weekly gain.
Much of the weekly inventory gains were made on the East Coast as its imports soared, pushing stocks there 2.5m barrels higher p on the week to 34.3m barrels, a level not seen since January last year.
The NY Harbor ULSD futures fell to $2.87/gal after the report but retraced those losses to trade at $2.90/gal, and halting Wednesday's rebound in global distillate markets.
East Coast imports more than doubled on the week to 665,000 bpd, beating the previous record of 615,000 bpd set in early 2021.
Total US imports amounted to 692,000 bpd, its highest since February 2006, while exports picked up again to 1.17 million bpd.
That meant that the net outflow of distillates slowed to below 0.5 million bpd for the first time since February last year.
The slowdown in net exports offset a minor fall in domestic production to 4.49 million bpd, and a 2% uptick in demand to 3.76 million bpd.
Production is now down 3.6% to the same week in 2019, while demand is down 1.5%, lending some support to the NY Harbor ULSD prices.
Jet
Jet fuel stocks rose to a seven-week high of 35.8 million barrels but remained relatively more tight to the rest of the middle distillates, standing at 17% below 2019 levels compared to 15% for distillate fuel.
Output ticked higher to 1.66 million bpd, while demand fell again to 1.54 million bpd, allowing stocks to rise.
Net outflows were mostly unchanged at around 70,000 bpd, with total exports reported at 174,000 bpd.
