US DATA: API registers record crude oil draw, products lower
Quantum Commodity Intelligence – US crude oil stocks dropped by record levels the week ending 28 July, according to a report released late Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute.
Figures revealed that crude stocks slumped 15.4 million barrels, massively overshooting analysts' expectations for a draw of just 1 million barrels.
The record draw on API data, which goes back over 40 years, also showed the key Cushing storage hub, the delivery point for the WTI crude futures contract, dropped 1.76 million barrels, while there were no releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves.
Oil prices rallied strongly on the data, with benchmark WTI testing 2023 highs earlier in the session.
Refined product inventories were also lower, with gasoline down by 1.68 million barrels and distillates falling 512,000 barrels.
A series of refining outages on both sides of the Atlantic, coinciding with the summer maintenance season, has underpinned the firm oil rally since early July.
This has helped lift gasoil margins to six-month highs, according to Quantum data, while gasoline cracks have also breached one-year highs this week in both northwest Europe and the US.
The 3-2-1 crack spread, a measure of US refining profitability based on gasoline and heating oil margins, has consolidated comfortably above $40/b.
Earlier this week, Marathon Petroleum said it expects a fire-hit catalytic reformer at its Galveston, Texas refinery to remain out of action until the end of September, cutting up to 75,000 bpd of output from the site.
The weekly API report serves as a forerunner to the closely watched EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report, which will be published at 1030 EST on Wednesday.
