The report from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that total crude oil and petroleum products (ex. SPR) stocks plunged -5.58 mmb to 1279.94 mmb in the week ended April 30. Crude oil inventory slumped -7.99 mmb (consensus: -2.35 mmb) to 485.12 mmb. Stockpile declined in 2 out of 5 PADDs with PADD 3 (Gulf Coast) alone down 10.41 mmb. Cushing stock added +0.25 mmb to 46.33 mmb. Utilization rate added +1.1 percentage point to 86.5% while crude production steadied at 10.9M bpd for the week. Crude oil imports increased +1.17M bpd to 5.45M bpd in the week. Larger than expected withdrawal initially sent crude oil prices to the highest level since March 8. However, concerns over the pandemic in India led to profit-taking. The front-month WTI contract ended the day at US$65.63/bbl, down 6 cents
Concerning refined oil product inventories, gasoline inventory gained +0.74 mmb, to 235.81 mmb as demand dropped -0.15% to 8.86M bpd. The market had anticipated a -0.65 mmb decrease in stockpile. Production sank -5.02% to 9.15M bpd while imports slipped -0.1% to 1.02M bpd during the week. Distillate stockpile declined -2.9 mmb to 136.15 mmb. The market had anticipated a -1.12 mmb fall. Demand fell -4.73% to 4.13M bpd. Production dropped -2.77% to 4.5 mmb while imports jumped +25.19% to 0.17M bpd during the week.
A day earlier, the industry-sponsored API estimated that crude oil inventory plummeted -7.69 mmb. Gasoline stockpile fell -5.31 mmb, while that for distillate dropped -3.45 mmb.
