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Welcome to this week’s Thirsty Thursday: An Inventory Report. By far the most interesting oil news this week has been the OPEC+ production quota cut of 1 million barrels. Subsequently, the price of oil has shot up. Speaking of shots, this week’s drink is the B-52. A beautifully layered shot with parts coffee liqueur, Baileys Irish cream liqueur, and Grand Marnier liqueur. I know, I know, it’s a lot of liqueur, and it’s not even the weekend yet. So maybe just mix up two, one for you and one for a buddy so the following report doesn’t get too fuzzy.
Crude Oil Stocks
Strong demand for crude is being supported by increasing summer demand for gasoline which is now able to be refined at increased rates thanks to many refineries coming back online following outages.
Both the EIA and the API reported draws in accordance with the recent demand for crude. Between the two groups, an average draw of 4 million barrels was reported.
A total of over 11 million barrels of crude oil have been removed from stockpiles across the country in the past few weeks. That is quite a departure from the previous few months!
I know I took the SPR update out a month or so ago but I thought I would inform you all that this week there was an SPR draw of 404 thousand barrels. So while the crude draw is nice, keep in mind the oil released by the SPR.
Oil and Natural Gas Prices
I’ll give you one guess as to when the OPEC+ production quota cuts were announced. As I’m sure you guessed, the cuts were announced on April second which immediately resulted in a jump in oil prices of about $5. Brent now sits firmly in the mid $8 and WTI has broken into the $8 range for the first time in a month.
The OPEC cuts had seemingly no effect on the price of natural gas which remained flat over the course of the week.
Fuels Market
Gasoline stocks are down and gas prices are up in response. The law of supply and demand is at work here.
So gasoline did indeed get more expensive, but I mean, it was only by about 7 cents so it shouldn’t be concerning to anyone. In the same vein, diesel cheapened this week, but only by about 3 cents.
There are currently 5 states with gasoline over $4 and none below $3, although Mississippi is less than a cent away.
Crude Oil Imports/Exports
Due to the sporadic and distant updates on import/export data, this section of the report will only be updated when the EIA updates its information too, and it looks like the EIA has refreshed its data so here is the second installment of the “Crude Oil Imports/Exports” section.
As of the week ending the 24th, crude oil imports have hit their lowest in a month by nearly a thousand barrels of oil per day. Crude oil exports are also down this week, sitting at 4,584 Mbbl/d.
US Weekly Import/Export Data (March 17 – 24)
| Product | Imports (Mbbl/d) | Exports (Mbbl/d) | Net (Mbbl/d) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crude Oil | 5,325 | 4,584 | 741 |
| Other Petroleum Products | 2,275 | 6,038 | -3,763 |
| Total Oil + Products | 7,600 | 10,622 | -3,022 |
Data on where exports are going and where imports are coming from hasn’t been updated since December so here is that information. It looks like most of the exports in December came from Canada, no surprise there, and most went to Mexico.
US Monthly Import/Export Origin and Destination Data (December 2022)
| Export Destination | Total (Mbbl) | Import Origin | Total (Mbbl) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mexico | 36,952 | Canada | 128,962 |
| Canada | 24,776 | Mexico | 23,618 |
| Netherlands | 22,233 | Saudi Arabia | 18,763 |
That does it for this week. I hope everyone has a great weekend and we’ll see you next week, cheers!
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