(Reuters) – U.S. crude oil stockpiles were expected to have risen last week, while distillate inventories likely fell with gasoline falling marginally, an extended Reuters poll showed on Wednesday.
Nine analysts polled by Reuters, ahead of weekly inventory data, estimated on average that crude inventories rose by about 3.1 million barrels in the week to February 14.
The data is delayed a day due to the President’s Day holiday on Monday. The report from industry group the American Petroleum Institute is due at 4:30 p.m. ET (2130 GMT) on Wednesday, and the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy, will release its report at 12:00 p.m. ET (1700 GMT) on Thursday.
Crude inventories rose by 4.1 million barrels to 427.9 million barrels in the week ended February 7, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3 million-barrel rise.
REUTERS FORECAST ACTUAL FOR PREVIOUS WEEK YR-AGO CHANGE
CHANGE FOR WEEK WEEK (EIA) CHANGE WEEK ENDED
ENDED ENDED 02/16/24
02/14/25 02/07/25
CRUDE 3.1 MLN 427.9 4.1 MLN 3.5 MLN
DISTILLATE -1.6 MLN 118.6 0.1 MLN -4 MLN
GASOLINE 0 MLN 248.1 -3 MLN -0.3 MLN
REFINERY -0.4 PCT PT 85% 0.5 PCT PT 0 PCT PT
RUNS
NATGAS -204 BCF TO -153 BCF (NINE FORECASTS)
STORAGE
FORECAST
Analysts estimated gasoline stockpiles fell marginally by about 6,000 barrels last week, and distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, dropped by about 1.6 million barrels.
The rate of refinery utilization was estimated to have fallen by 0.4 percentage points from 85% of total capacity in the previous week, the poll found.
All figures for stocks are in millions of barrels. Refinery rate changes are measured in percentage points.
Organization Crude Distillate Gasoline Refinery
runs
Again Capital 1.9 -1.0 1.7 -0.8
Confluence 3.0 -1.5 -1.5 -1.0
Commodity Research Group 4.8 -0.2 -1.7 -0.2
Excel Futures 3.9 -3.0 -2.6 -0.6
Macquarie Group 3.8 -1.2 1.1 -0.1
Price Futures Group 2.0 2.0 2.0 0
Refinitiv 2.3 -1.0 0.7 -0.3
Ritterbusch 2.2 -3.5 0.8 0.3
Rystad Energy 6.6 -4.3 -1.1 -0.6
(Reporting by Noel John in Bengaluru)
