Petroleum Data for Week Ending August 4th

Abbreviations:

MM = million

M = thousand

Bbl(s) = barrel(s)

Bbl/d = barrel(s) per day

WTI = West Texas Intermediate, the US bench mark crude for world pricing and the bench mark for NYMEX trading

NYMEX = New York Mercantile Exchange, a sub of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The NYMEX was once the largest oil, natural gas, and refined products open outcry (energy) exchange in the world

SPR = Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the world's largest supply of emergency crude oil was established primarily to reduce the impact of disruptions in supplies of petroleum products and to carry out obligations of the United States under the international energy program. The federally-owned oil stocks are stored in huge underground salt caverns at four sites along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico. The sheer size of the SPR (authorized storage capacity of 714MM bbls) makes it a significant deterrent to oil import cutoffs and a key tool in foreign policy. 

Refineries

· U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.6MM bbl/d during the week ending August 4, which was .062MM more than the previous week’s average

· Refineries operated at 93.8% of their operable capacity last week

· Gasoline production increased last week, averaging 9.9MM bbl/d

· Distillate fuel production increased last week, averaging 4.9MM bbl/d

Imports

· U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.7MM bbl/d last week an increase of .014MM bbl/d from the previous week

· Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.7MM bbl/d, 2.7% more than the same four-week period last year

· Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged .685MM bbl/d

· Distillate fuel imports averaged .065MM bbl/d

Inventories

· U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding SPR) increased by 5.9MM bbls from the previous week

· At 445.6MM bbls, U.S. crude oil inventories are slightly below the five-year average for this time of year

· Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 2.7MM bbls from last week and are about 7% below the five-year average for this time of year

· Both Finished gasoline and blending components inventories decreased last week

· Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 1.7MM bbls last week and are about 17% below the five-year average for this time of year

· Propane/propylene inventories increased 1.3MM bbls from last week and are 24% above the five-year average for this time of year

· Total commercial petroleum inventories increased by 7.1MM bbls last week

Supplied

· Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.7MM bbl/d, up by 2.9% from the same period last year

· Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 9.0MM bbl/d, up by 1.4% from the same period last year

· Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.7MM bbl/d over the past four weeks, down by 0.5% from the same period last year

· Jet fuel product supplied was up 4.3% compared with the same four-week period last year

Pricing

· WTI crude oil price was $82.76/bbl on Aug 4, $2.21 higher than a week prior, but $9.01 less than last year at the same time (At time of writing NYMEX WTI at $84.36/bbl)

· The spot price for conventional gasoline at New York Harbor dropped to $2.799/gal, $0.056 less than last week’s price, and $0.333 less than the year-ago price (NYMEX RBob at $2.93/gal)

· The New York Harbor spot price for ULSD fuel was $3.062/gal, $0.112 more than last week, but $0.143 less than the price last year (NYMEX Heating Oil at 43.215/gal)

· The national average retail price for regular gasoline was $3.828/gal on Aug 7, $0.071 more than last week, but $0.210 less than the price last year

· The national average retail price for diesel fuel climbed to $4.239/gal, $0.112 more than a week ago, but $0.754 less the price last year at the same time