Weekly Petroleum Report -- September 20, 2017

Weekly petroleum report, highlights.

Re-balancing: 46 weeks.

• crude oil inventories increased by 4.6 million bbls from the previous week
• at 472.8 million bbls, US crude oil inventories are in the upper half of the average range for this time of year; two points to consider:
• number of years to determine the average not stated
• the huge glut of crude oil inventories since 2014 have skewed the average upwards
• gasoline inventories decreased 2.1 million bbls, but gasoline also remains in the upper half of the average range;
• gasoline supplied: average 9.5 million bbls per over the past four weeks
• distillate fuel product was up 14.5% from the same period last year 
• refinery operating capacity clawing back from a recent low of 79% to 83% this past week
• gasoline production continues to decrease on a weekly basis while distillate fuel production is increasing
• US crude oil imports increased by almost one million bopd (actual: 888,000 bopd)

Gasoline demand graph will be posted by the EIA tomorrow.

Following the report, the price of WTI did not change. It is currently at $50.15 (9:50 a.m. Central Time, September 20, 2017) which was about where futures were before the market opened earlier today.

Note: how I calculate the number of weeks to "re-balance" is discussed at this post, near the bottom of that post. As usual, the usual disclaimer applies: I often make simple math errors.