Tainted Alpha

Crude oil stocks were down 3.7 million barrels for week ending 11 December; Gasoline stocks rose 0.9 million barrels; Distillate stocks fell 3 million barrels; Propane/propylene stocks fell big 4 million barrels; Other oils were down 0.6 million barrels; Total crude oil and petroleum stocks decreased 12.7 million barrels.

This is one of the most sportive data sets for crude oil price in months. Looks like cold weather has finally spurred meaningful stock draw. Despite this positive report stocks of almost all categories remain at elevated levels.

Refinery utilization fell to 80 % from 81% the week before.

Crude oil and petroleum product net imports stayed at the lowest levels in a decade.

I suspect crude oil price will recover somewhat on this data.

Chart 1. Crude Oil Futures

Chart 2. Change in U.S. Crude Oil and Distillates Stocks

Chart 3. U.S. Total Crude Oil, Gasoline and Distillate Ending Stocks

Chart 4. U.S. Refinery Capacity, Inputs, and Production

Chart 5. Weekly U.S. Total Crude Oil and Petroleum Products Imports and Exports

Crude Oil

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 10:17 am and is filed under Commodities, U.S. Petroleum Weekly. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.