Global And US Crude Oil Inventories -- April 21, 2021

The other day I posted this:

Saudi: oil in storage. Starting about now, Saudis will start increasing their domestic consumption of oil for generating electricity for air conditioning.

To continue the discussion, here are a few more links to articles posted since that graphic above was posted:

• global oil surplus diminishing, Arkansas Democrat Gazette, re-posts a Bloomberg article that may end up behind a paywall;
• there's a lot of unused oil stored up around the world, see previous data point; Bloomberg;
• physical oil market is flashing green; overhang disappears; HFI Research; full article at SeekingAlpha; 

From the Bloomberg article showing the global drawdown:

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The Weekly Petroleum Data: API and EIA

The EIA weekly petroleum report data is posted below. This was Julianne Geiger's "take" on the API report yesterday -- yes, it was another "surprise." We've talked about this before. Every weekly report seems to be an "unexpected" build or an "unexpected" draw. API yesterday:

• analysts forecast a 2.9-million-bbl draw;
• in fact, a build of 436,000 bbls (one can scoff at the fake precision)

EIA weekly petroleum report, link here:

• US crude oil in storage: 493.0 million bbls;
• US crude oil in storage increased by 0.6 million bbls from the previous week;
• refiners operating at 85% of their operable capacity
• the US imported 5.4 million bbls of crude oil per day last week, down by about half-a-million bopd;
• over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 5.9 million bopd, 5% more than the same four-week period last year;
• distillate fuel inventories decreased by 1.1 million bbls; supplies at 2% above the five-year average;
• jet fuel delivered: up a whopping 63% compare with same four-week pandemic-lockdown period last year;

It seems everything is pretty much unremarkable, except maybe two items:

• crude oil imports are still running 5% higher than four-week period last year;
• the marked change in jet fuel being delivered: one year ago, lockdowns were just beginning; major flight restrictions; this year, now, flying is getting back to normal (sort of)
• it will be interesting to see how fast things can change; 
• by the way, I wonder if Greta took a private jet to DC this week, if she flew commercial, if she sailed on a cruise ship, or if she rowed herself over her. I really don't know.  If asked, my hunch is she would respond along this line (a huge "thank you" to a reader"
  

After the report, WTI recovers slightly but still down 1%; trading right at $62. 

Jet fuel delivered:

Jet Fuel Delivered, Change, Four-Week/Four-Week
Week	Date of Report	Change
Week 41	March 3, 2021	-24.20%
Week 42	March 10, 2021	-29.80%
Week 43	March 17, 2021	-36.20%
Week 44	March 24, 2021	-35.40%
Week 45	March 31, 2021	-30.20%
Week 46	April 7, 2021	-11.70%
Week 47	April 14, 2021	24.80%
Week 48	April 21, 2021	62.90%