U.S. Petroleum Weekly – 27 January 2010
Crude oil stocks fell 3.9 million barrels for week ending 22 January; Gasoline stocks increased for 2 million barrels; Distillate stocks rose 0.4 million barrels; Propane/propylene stocks fell 4.3 million barrels; Other oils were down 0.2 million barrels; Total crude oil and petroleum stocks fell 5.7 million barrels.
Refinery utilization remained flat at 78.5%.
Crude oil and petroleum product net imports were at 9.1 million barrels level (lower bound level). All categories of petroleum stocks are still at elevated levels.
As stated many times before, fundamentals doesn’t warrant crude oil at these levels. From the traders corner, strengthening dollar and hopes (still alive) of strong economic recovery could keep the price at today levels in short term.
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