Drillinginfo has acquired the assets, product lines and related services associated with Ponderosa Energy. Customers can now rely on a single partner for real-time, actionable intelligence and analytics and predictive support for investments in the industry, whether they are investing in exploration, production, buying, selling or trading. Learn more here.

US crude oil stocks increased by 5.3 MMBbl last week. Gasoline and distillate inventories increased by 0.7 MMBbl and 0.3 MMBbl respectively. Yesterday afternoon, API had reported a crude oil and distillate build of 3.6 MMBbl and 3.0 MMBbl respectively. Analysts had expected a 1.5 MMBbl/d increase in crude oil stocks, according to a Reuters survey. The most important number to keep an eye on, total petroleum inventories, posted an increase of 7.1 MMBbl. For a summary of the crude oil and petroleum product stock movements, see table below.

US production was estimated to be down 11 MBbl/d from last week per EIA’s estimate. Imports were up 0.981 MMBbl/d last week to an average of 8.4 MMBbl/d. Refinery inputs averaged 16.1 MMBbl/d (309 MBbl/d more than last week), leading to a utilization rate of 89.2%. The petroleum stocks report is bearish, with crude oil posting a larger build than that expected by analysts alongside builds in both gasoline and diesel inventories. During refinery maintenance season, although crude oil stocks are expected to grow, product inventories are expected to post withdrawals. The large increase in total petroleum stocks this week has nullified last week’s withdrawal. Despite the inventory build, prompt month WTI prices are up $0.46/Bbl following the report, trading at $46.27/Bbl at the time of writing.

Crude oil prices recovered from continued declines yesterday as the market reacted to the OPEC secretary general traveling to member nations to discuss details of the proposed supply cut. Additionally, crude reversed much of the declines immediately following the stockpil...