Energy Prospectus

CRUDE OIL INVENTORY/’000 bbls (Week Ended 8/21/15)

Current: 450,761
Actual Build/(Withdrawal): (5,452)
Economist Average Estimate: 986
Previous: 456,213

This should give some support to WTI prices. Just remember that these weekly storage reports from EIA have a lot of "guesses" in them.

We are in the middle of "shoulder season" for crude oil demand. By mid-September demand from refiners ramps up as they complete maintenance projects and ramp up heating oil production. As you can see from this chart, the 4th quarter is the highest demand period for refined products: https://www.iea.org/oilmarketreport/omrpublic/

Global demand for refined products will top 95,000,000 barrels per day (the highest ever) during the 4th quarter.

See chart at this link:

http://www.oilandgas360.com/analytics/c ... c-26406629

The drop was due to imports. The lower 48 production remained the same.

EIA estimate of domestic production is a pure guess. They collect no real data. Their weekly production numbers are based on formulas.

Real production for any given period is not available for at least 90 days.