EIA - Weekly Petroleum Report - August 15

[dan_s]

Summary of Weekly Petroleum Data for the week ending August 21, 2020

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 14.7 million barrels per day during the week ending August 21, 2020 which was 225,000 barrels per day more than the previous week’s average.
Refineries operated at 82.0% of their operable capacity last week. < This is bullish because it indicates that refiners see demand picking up..
Gasoline production increased last week, averaging 9.5 million barrels per day.
Distillate fuel production increased last week, averaging 5.1 million barrels per day.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 5.9 million barrels per day last week, up by 185,000 barrels per day from the previous week. < Probably tankers wanting to unload and get out of the GOM before the hurricanes arrive.
Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 5.8 million barrels per day, 16.9% less than the same four-week period last year.
Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 539,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 129,000 barrels per day.

> U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) decreased by 4.7 million barrels from the previous week. At 507.8 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about 15% above the five year average for this time of year. < Larger draw than expected.
> Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 4.6 million barrels last week and are about 5% above the five year average for this time of year. Finished gasoline and blending components inventories both decreased last week.
> Distillate fuel inventories increased by 1.4 million barrels last week and are about 24% above the five year average for this time of year.
> Propane/propylene inventories increased by 1.5 million barrels last week and are about 9% above the five year average for this time of year.
>> Total commercial petroleum inventories decreased by 7.8 million barrels last week. < Inventories should be back to normal levels by year-end and go way below normal by Q2 2021.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 18.5 million barrels a day, down by 14.6% from the same period last year.
Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.8 million barrels a day, down by 9.8% from the same period last year.
Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.7 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down by 5.0% from the same period last year.
Jet fuel product supplied was down 45.7% compared with the same four-week period last year. < Jet fuel demand will take much longer to rebound, but it is much smaller than the market demand for gasoline and diesel.

[dan_s]

Aegis Energy Comments:
> EIA reported a draw of -4689 MBbls in U.S. crude-oil inventories for the week ending 8/21/2020. This was larger than the average estimate of -2530 MBbls as reported by Bloomberg.
> Prices were up five minutes following the announcement, to $43.64, from $43.60 just before 9:30am.
> Inventories for the US are now at a surplus of 69.985 MBbls to last year and a surplus of 63.51 MBbls to the five-year average.