New York - September 08, 2015
Platts Survey of Analysts
- Crude oil stocks up 300,000 barrels
- Gasoline stocks unchanged
- Distillate stocks up 700,000 barrels
- Refinery utilization, or run rate, down 0.5 percentage points to 92.3%
NEW YORK, September 8, 2015 - Platts - U.S. commercial crude oil stocks are expected to have increased 300,000 barrels in the week that ended Friday, a survey of analysts showed Tuesday.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is scheduled to release its weekly data at 11:00 am EDT (1500 GMT) Thursday. The data release is delayed one day because of the Labor Day holiday.
The EIA five-year (2010-14) average shows inventories fell 1 million barrels for the same reporting period.
Crude oil stocks typically decrease through the summer until late September when demand drops because of the autumn refinery turnaround season.
The possibility that refiners have started planned repairs earlier-than-usual this year has raised expectations of crude oil stock builds.
Refinery crude oil runs have decreased on a weekly basis the last four reporting periods. For the week ended August 28, crude oil runs averaged 16.389 million barrels per day (b/d). That was 4% lower than the last week of July when crude oil runs topped 17 million b/d.
Analysts surveyed expect the refinery utilization rate fell 0.5 percentage points to 92.3% of operable capacity. By comparison, the refinery utilization rate one year ago for the same reporting period stood at 93.9% of operable capacity.
In refinery news, planned work began last week at the 336,000 b/d Wood River refinery in Roxana, Illinois, a Phillips 66 spokesman said. The refinery is a joint venture of Phillips 66-Cenovus.
Phillips 66 spokesman Dennis Nuss confirmed via email work was underway but did not comment on the scope or timing of the turnaround, citing company policy.
The unit undergoing turnaround was the 120,000 b/d crude distillation unit (CDU), trade sources said. The unit is supposed to be offline until October 19, they said.
Another factor impacting stockpiles has been imports, which rose 656,000 b/d the week ended August 28 and helped drive crude oil inventories 4.7 million barrels higher.
A shrinking gap between Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Brent and New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) crude oil has provided an incentive to seek cargoes from abroad. The front-month ICE Brent-West Texas Intermediate (WTI) spread closed under $5 per barrel (/b) every day last week, hitting an intraday low of $3.48/b on Friday.
ICE Brent's premium has shrunk since mid-August when it reached $7/b at one point.
GASOLINE STOCKS SEEN UNCHANGED
U.S. gasoline stocks are expected to have been unchanged last week, the analysts surveyed said. The EIA five-year average shows gasoline inventories building 560,000 barrels in the comparable reporting week.
U.S. distillate stocks are expected to have increased 700,000 barrels over the latest reporting week. The EIA five-year average for the same reporting period shows inventories increasing 1.7 million barrels.
Tesoro closed an unspecified unit last week at its 166,000 b/d refinery in Martinez, California. No other details were provided in the report Tesoro filed with a county agency. A company spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment. Market sources said the unit may have been tied to diesel production.
For more information on crude oil, visit the Platts website.
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