US Supply Of Crude Oil -- Days -- EIA -- April 7, 2020

Link here.

This will be quite interesting to follow. It almost appears, that due to storage, there is a maximum number of days of supply of US crude oil. One might have thought the number of days of supply could be "infinite" if Saudi Arabia maximized production "forever," but that's unlikely. When storage is full, storage is full. The EIA definition of US supply of crude oil in days does not include foreign oil (or domestic oil, for that matter) being "stored" in VLCCs -- a rather new phenomenon.

Note the relative narrow range of days of US supple of crude oil at the link:

It appears US supply of crude oil as measured in days was re-set after 2015 with "30 days" becoming the new norm. With US exports increasing in the late 20-teens, the US days of supply trended upward until production, export terminals, and availability of VLCCs caught up with global demand.

That's probably what Saudi Arabia saw in late 2019. US was taking market share away from traditional crude oil suppliers.

One wonders if there will be an incentive for "someone" to start adding more storage in the US. VLCC's are leasing for $50,000 / day. My hunch? Someone is doing the math. But until the EIA either re-defines how storage is calculated (off-shore VLCC's, for example) and/or the US starts putting in more storage at traditional locations (west coast; Gulf coast; Cushing), days of US supply is finite, not "infinite." Perhaps US supply, measured in days, will max out at the Biblical forty days and forty nights.