Updates
March 4, 2021: from a reader who follows this very, very closely -- see comments below.
It's notable that no one saw this coming; some headlines on the report indicate a "surprise" build in crude supplies.
Before the report, forecasts were for a 1,805,000 barrel withdrawal.
Nor was there any recent news indicating longer term refinery damage; i.e., one recent headline said "oil prices mixed as refineries reopen."
There was also a 1,386,000 barrel per day swing in the balance sheet fudge factor that I follow; without that, we would have had a 30 million barrel build.
Zero Hedge: API had Cushing +732K barrels; EIA had Cushing +485K.
Original Post
Re-posting.
Weekly EIA petroleum data:
- US crude oil in storage increased by 21.6 million bbls from the previous week;
- US crude oil in storage now stands at 484.6 million bbls, only 3% above the five year average for this time of year
- refineries were operating at 56.0% of their operable capacity last week (week ending February 26, 2021)
- the time line:
- Texas Freeze; power lost: February 15, 2021
- power back on: February 19, 2021
- commerce back to normal: February 22, 2021
- distillate fuel inventories decreased by 9.7 million bbls; 2% below the five-year average for this time of year;
- propane/propylene inventories decreased by 2.2 million bbls; 17% below the five-year average for this time of year
- jet fuel product supplied was down 24.2% compared with same four-week period last year
It will be interesting to see the "all" the data when Focus on Fracking posts Sunday night.
Re-balancing:
Generally, US crude oil in storage varies by one to five million bbls week-over-week. I don't recall a build of almost 22 million bbls in one week. And yet ... US crude oil in storage is pretty much at the 5-year average. And almost none of that increase was due to imports.
Energy independence? Sorry. Not sorry.