The API numbers below are from the Greywolf website (which is an excellent site by the way for news). Gasoline and crude inventories up a large amount and distillates down 6.24 million bbl (I'll bet distillates are down next week also due to these late winter storms).
New York March 9
Weekly American Petroleum Institute (API) inventory data released this afternoon were considered negative for the crude oil and gasoline markets and slightly bullish for heating oil on the surface. "It's a reality check," commented Richard Redash, of Prudential Securities here. He said based on the recent action, this market is already pricing in a new round of production cuts by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Tonight's numbers say the cuts are needed, he said, looking at the larger builds in crude oil and gasoline stocks this past week. "OPEC has its opponents breathing hard and bleeding and it only takes one more punch to put them on the canvass," he said. Worst thing OPEC can do right now is make a short-term fix by cutting production and letting other non-OPEC producers back in the fight for market share. He said the best they can do is pump the crude for another six months or so and put the independents and higher-cost producers out of business for good.
Crude oil stocks were reported up 4.729 million barrels to 332.4 million barrels by the API. This also follows a modest upward adjustment to the stocks level reported a week ago. Total stocks of crude oil remain some 10 million barrels above a year ago. Traders were generally looking for a small 1 million- to 2 million-barrel drop in crude oil stocks, but some were talking about the potential for stocks to rise as much as 4 million barrels. The rise in crude oil stocks was a surprise given that refinery runs fell by a larger than expected 1.4% this past week and crude oil imports slipped slightly. Redash said the rise is not caused by one of those West Coast builds. He also said the market will need to be careful about another surge in imports given the differentials between U.S. and overseas crude prices. The API reported gasoline stocks rose 3.1 million barrels this past week when most were looking for a drop of 0.5 million to 1.5 million barrels of gas. Total stocks of gasoline are now pegged at 233.2 million barrels, some 17.2 million barrels above last year, or nearly 8% greater. Implied gasoline demand was weak this past week and the rise in stocks was not a result of revisions, Redash noted. Distillate stocks were reported down an unexpectedly large 6.24 million barrels. This also follows nearly a 2.0 million-barrel cut in last week's distillate stocks total, further enhancing the positive aspects of the drop. However, total stocks of distillates now stand at 139.9 million barrels, or 15.2 million barrels above a year ago.
Washington-March 9-FWN--The following is a summary of
closely watched weekly American Petroleum Institute data.
GASOLINE STOCKS
PADD March 5 Feb. 26
1 (East) 68,208 66,705
2 (Midwest) 62,745 63,380
3 (Gulf) 66,560 65,232
4 (Mountain) 7,792 7,387
5 (West) 27,893 27,392
TOTAL U.S. 233,198 230,096
DISTILLATE STOCKS
PADD Feb. 26 Feb. 26
1 59,880 63,974
2 35,010 37,182
3 29,569 31,659
4 2,973 2,962
5 12,435 12,443
TOTAL U.S. 139,867 148,220
CRUDE OIL STOCKS
PADD Feb. 26 Feb. 26
1 16,277 14,761
2 70,770 69,810
3 174,261 171,809
4 12,002 11,558
5 59,046 58,813
TOTAL U.S. 332,356 326,751 |
