Crude Oil Inventories Drop Almost 10 Million Bbls -- EIA Weekly Petroleum Report -- March 20, 2019

Weekly numbers: link here --

WTI: $59.14 -- down 15 cents, just prior to release of today's data

• right after release of data: $59.57, up 28 cents
• before the day is over, unless there is offsetting news, the tea leaves suggest we will go over $60/bbl soon

Link here.

• US crude oil inventories: decreases an astounding 9.6 million bbls
• US crude oil inventories: now at 439.5 million bbls; now about 2% below the five-year average
• refineries: at 88.9% operating capacity
• crude oil imports up slightly, up 186,000 bopd; averaging 6.9 million bopd
• crude oil imports, averaging about 6.6 million bopd, is 11% less than the same period last year 

Re-balancing: still won't happen in my lifetime.

Week	Date	Change w-o-w	In Storage	Weeks to RB to 350 Million Bbls
Week 0	November 21, 2018	4.9	446.9	N/A
Week 1	November 28, 2018	3.6	450.5	N/A
Week 2	December 6, 2018	-7.3	443.2	N/A
Week 3	December 12, 2018	-1.2	442.0	Never at this rate
Week 4	December 19, 2018	-0.5	441.5	Never at this rate
Week 5	December 28, 2018	0.0	441.4	Never at this rate
Week 6	January 4, 2019	0.0	441.4	Never at this rate
Week 7	January 9, 2019	-1.7	439.7	A long, long time
Week 8	January 16, 2019	-2.7	437.1	Won’t happen in my lifetime
Week 9	January 24, 2019	8.0	445.0	Won’t happen i my lifetime
Week 10	January 31, 2019	0.9	445.9	Won’t happen in my lifetime
Week 11	February 6, 2019	1.3	447.2	Won’t happen in my lifetime
Week 12	February 13, 2019	3.6	450.8	Won’t happen in my lifetime
Week 13	February 21, 2019	3.7	454.8	Won’t happen in my lifetime
Week 14	February 27, 2019	-8.6	445.9	Won’t happen in my lifetime
Week 15	March 6, 2019	7.1	452.9	Won’t happen in my lifetime
Week 16	March 13, 2019	-3.9	449.1	Won’t happen in my lifetime
Week 17	March 20, 2019	-9.6	439.5	Won’t happen in my lifetime
		-0.1