Summary of Weekly Petroleum Data for the week ending April 16, 2021 ........................................................
U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 14.8 million barrels per day during the week ending April 16, 2021 which was 286,000 barrels per day less than the previous week’s average. Refineries operated at 85.0% of their operable capacity last week. Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.4 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production decreased last week, averaging 4.6 million barrels per day.
U.S. crude oil imports averaged 5.4 million barrels per day last week, down by 448,000 thousand barrels per day from the previous week. Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 5.9 million barrels per day, 5.0% more than the same four-week period last year. Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 1.1 million barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 162,000 barrels per day.
U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) increased by 0.6 million barrels from the previous week. At 493.0 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about 1% above the five year average for this time of year. Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 0.1 million barrels last week and are about 3% below the five year average for this time of year. Finished gasoline inventories decreased while blending components inventories increased last week. Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 1.1 million barrels last week and are about 2% above the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories decreased by 0.1 million barrels last week and are about 18% below the five year average for this time of year. Total commercial petroleum inventories increased by 3.6 million barrels last week.
Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 19.7 million barrels a day, up by 30.7% from the same period last year. Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.9 million barrels a day, up by 61.5% from the same period last year. Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.9 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 15.9% from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 62.9% compared with the same four-week period last year.
Black Blade (a.k.a. Dennis Erectus):
This week's EIA Petroleum Inventory Status Report is NEUTRAL to SLIGHTLY BULLISH as Crude inventories increased only 0.6 million bbls while Total Commercial Petroleum Inventories increased 6.3 million bbls as refinery utilization remained at around 85%. Refiners are also in the midst of making preparations to refine summer blends of transportation fuels so refinery utilization rate will reflect the seasonal maintenance issues. Not much has changed since last week overall, There's been some rumblings in OPEC+ about increasing production as the IEA forecasts suggest growing global energy demand. The Houti Rebels are still active and attempted another attack on Saudi oil facilities but came up short. The Muslim terrorists in western Africa are back to their old tricks again but this time they managed to somehow kill President Idriss Deby of Chad on the "front lines". Being close to the oil producing region of western Africa the powers in the area are slightly more nervous about prospective attacks on oil personnel and infrastructure. In the United States the House Judiciary Committee is going after OPEC on "Anti-Trust" actions on price collusion. This will go nowhere. Heck, they can't even stop the domestic Big Tech monopolies and their anti-trust activities.
As for the "Blade Portfolio" we added more shares of VSTO while still holding positions in our personal defense and security stocks MACE, POWW and MAGS. Business at the gun shops seems to have picked up again in response to fears over renewed domestic terrorism (BLM-ANTIFA) and the expected response to the Derek Chauvin trial verdict (he was convicted so the expected riots did not materialize). Meanwhile, some cities see continued riots, arson, looting, vandalism, assaults, etc. so ammo and firearms purchases are continuing. That said, seems that the "Ammo Drought" is coming to an end with small "mom and pop" gun shops receiving shipments of ammo although the Big Box stores are struggling to acquire supplies. That's because the smaller guys are more nimble and can pay "on the spot" with cash for ammo while the Big Box stores are mired down in paperwork and company bureaucracy where "purchase orders" are signed and submitted and paid for after invoices are received. Hey, "money talks and bullshit walks" as they say. Another bright spot in supply is that Vista Outdoors (VSTO) has restarted the Lonoke, Arkansas ammo facility with an additional 400 new employees and cranking out ammo 24/7 to take advantage of the pent up demand. Ammo is finally starting to appear on ammo shelves once again. In fact we added quite a bit of .380 acp, 9x19mm, .45 acp, .223, 5.56 and 7.6239 calibers ourselves here in "Bladesville".
Silver and Gold prices are moving to the $1,800 level today and our mining shares are performing nicely as well. We just keep adding physical silver and mining shares via our "dollar-cost-averaging" strategy. We added more shares of GFI and KL this last week though. As long as the Feral Reserve Banksters keep "printing money" out of thin air we are accumulating Silver, Gold and precious metals mining shares. Also note that the rates of Inflation are soaring again. Never mind the bogus phony Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) inflation data ... we are focused on "real inflation" as the costs of most everything is rising from food, energy, housing, metals, etc. just keep on rising at an accelerating rate. "Shadow Stats" is a good source for "real world" inflation data without all the statistical lies bandied about by the BLS. It can only get wore with $Trillions upon $Trillions of new spending bills coming out of Washington DC. As Alan Greenspan himself said "Gold is the ultimate hedge" for inflation.
Our Cryptocurrencies continue to make wild swings in price but we now sit at BTC near $55,000 which we use as our Cryptocurrency benchmark. We continue to hold BTC, ETH, ETC, LTC, MKR, TEZOS, XRP ALGO, COMP, CGLD, GRT and BAND. On a side note today Bitcoin exchange Coinbase went public last week (ticker COIN) though it is not moving much as fears of a possible intervention by world governments including the United States - seems the Banksters don't like competition. Not worried though as we keep adding some here and there on dips. Even PayPal and Venmo now trade Cryptos on their sites (apps) and more are jumping onboard. Hard for the governments to step in now so maybe some "regulation" down the line but many now use "cold wallet" devices to carry, store and trade Cryptos away from the all seeing eyes of Big Brother.
We continue to slowly add shares of RIG, KOS, MVO, ET and EPD while holding steady on our shares of DMLP, SPH, T, VZ, HEP, IRM, PPL, CAPL and GRME. We continue to add to our eREIT FUNDRISE. Our own rentals are occupied with stable renters and continue to provide decent cash flow. We now have three of our stripper wells up and operating and one remaining idled. Not much else to report on renewed drilling prospects yet.
As for Food and Necessities Storage - We added more hard wheat, rice, yeast and sugar this last week. Our projections have a near 5-7 year storage for our needs come to fruition as we also continue to add additional crates of pasta, cases of sauces. etc. We continue to add a few cases of Freeze-Dried foods on occasion as we build up supplies for "very long storage" needs. We are still in the process to recycle out water supplies and through the process should have recycled nearly 10,000 gallons of fresh water while using the water currently stored for gardening use. It's a slow process but we have time and soon the weather will be much improved. Our gardening is just getting underway slower than hoped due to other pressing needs. Our fruit trees appear to be blossoming nicely so our hopes for a good harvest remain high.
As always, get out of debt and stay out of debt, accumulate physical Silver and Gold bullion as "portfolio insurance", and stockpile supplies of long term nonperishable foods and basic necessities into storage. After all we do "live in interesting times". |
