ND: US OIL INVENTORIES:Gasoline, Distillate Stocks Post Big Draws
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- U.S. crude inventories rose in line with analysts' estimates last week, but gasoline and distillate stocks showed large, unexpected draws, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Crude oil stockpiles rose by 1.4 million barrels to 343.0 million barrels for the week ended March 5, compared with an average survey estimate of a 1.7- million barrel build. On Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, reported a 6.5-million barrel increase.
The futures markets reacted positively to the latest data. April contracts for crude oil futures pulled out of the red and were recently up 0.6% at $81.96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange while RBOB gasoline prices rose 0.8% to $2.22784 a gallon and heating oil gained 0.8% to $2.1056 a gallon.
Stocks for oil and refined products remain at unusually high levels for this time of the year, but the EIA is expecting oil consumption to grow on improving economic activity through next year with oil prices averaging $82 in 2010 and $ 85 in 2011, according to the agency's short-term energy outlook released Tuesday.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is expected to maintain crude-oil production quotas at their next meeting taking place March 17 in anticipation of demand growth. The 12-member group last cut quotas by 4.2 million barrels a day in late 2008, but countries' compliance fell as oil prices rebounded. Last year, OPEC production had fallen by an average of 2.2 million barrels a day, according to EIA.
Still, overall consumption of liquid fuels remains weak in the U.S., but EIA expects it to grow in 2010 and 2011 after declining for four consecutive years. Gasoline demand has started to tick higher and is expected to show modest but steady increases while diesel demand "remains highly uncertain," EIA's monthly report said.
Gasoline stockpiles fell by 2.9 million barrels to 229.0 million barrels, the department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report. The compares with the estimate for an increase of 100,000 barrels based on a Dow Jones Newswires survey of 16 analysts.
Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, declined by 2.2 million barrels to 149.6 million barrels, compared with analysts' forecast of a 700,000-barrel draw.
Refining capacity utilization fell 1.4 percentage points to 80.73%. Analysts had expected the rate to rise by 0.1 percentage point. U.S. refineries are operating around historically low levels for this time of the year.
API's data showed gasoline stocks falling by 3.2 million barrels, distillate stocks declining by 2.8 million barrels and a 0.7-percentage point drop in refinery utilization to 80.9%.
U.S. Oil Inventories:
For week ended March 5:
Crude Distillates Gasoline Refinery Use
EIA data: +1.4 -2.2 -2.9 -1.1
Forecast: +1.7 -0.7 +0.1 +0.1
Figures in millions of barrels, except for refining use, which is reported in percentage points. Forecasts are the average of expectations in a Dow Jones Newswires survey of analysts earlier in the week.
-By Naureen S. Malik, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-4210; naureen.malik@ dowjones.com
