Crude inventories at the US midcontinent pipeline and pricing hub of Cushing, Oklahoma, ballooned to an all-time high last week ahead of this week's start-up of the reversed Seaway pipeline that will bring oil down to the Texas Gulf coast.
Oil stocks in Cushing hit 45.127mn bl last week, up 1mn bl, or more than 2pc, from the week before, according to the latest data from the Energy Information Administration. Overall US commercial crude stocks edged up 2.128mn bl to 381.644mn bl.
Interesting movements by region include a 4.3pt climb in Gulf coast refiners' utilization rates to 91.3pc of capacity. Refiners on the west coast cut rates by 3.1pt to 76.5pc of capacity.
Total product supplied – a measure of demand – broke through the 19mn b/d mark again, climbing by 2.2pc, or 410,000 b/d, to average 19.013mn b/d last week. But gasoline demand was down 77,000 b/d to 8.971mn b/d, while distillate demand was up 28,000 b/d to 3.648mn b/d.
US inventories of gasoline fell by just over 1pc, or 2.797mn bl, to 204.311mn bl. Distillates stocks were down less than 1pc, or 969,000 bl, to 119.802mn bl.