News

1) About that EIA report. Even though refinery runs dropped, a relatively normal level of imports into the U.S. Gulf Coast – as opposed to a post-storm surge – has meant a minor draw to oil inventories. Nonetheless, a build to gasoline stocks amid lower runs and lower product supplied has helped to counter the bullish influence of the crude draw, a notion enthusiastically affirmed by a strong build to distillates.

The distillate data is perhaps the most interesting. Total distillate Inventories increased by 4.6 million barrels, or 3 percent, to 162.8 million barrels. The majority of the build was seen on the East Coast, with a 3.5mn bbl build.

This build comes amid weaker distillate demand, and a recent drop-off in exports from the US Gulf (as seen in our ClipperData here – in kbd, hark right).

Distillate inventories peaked at this time last year at 153 mn bbls, before being seasonally drawn down ahead of the winter heating period and amid the fall maintenance period. But after a balmy winter in the Northeast (it’s all relative, folks), consumers may still have more supply than usual left in their tanks, meaning we may see less dra...