US crude, product inventories likely fell last week: Reuters poll

(Reuters) – U.S. crude oil and fuel stockpiles are expected to have fallen last week, an extended Reuters poll showed on Tuesday.

Five analysts polled by Reuters estimated on average that crude inventories fell by about 1.9 million barrels in the week to Dec. 20.

Crude inventories fell by 934,000 barrels to 421 million barrels in the week ended Dec. 13, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.6-million-barrel draw.

REUTERS FORECAST ACTUAL FOR PREVIOUS WEEK YR-AGO CHANGE

CHANGE FOR WEEK WEEK (EIA) CHANGE WEEK ENDED

ENDED ENDED 12/22/23

12/20/24 12/13/24

CRUDE -1.9 MLN 421 -0.9 MLN -7.1 MLN

DISTILLATE -0.3 MLN 118.2 -3.2 MLN 0.7 MLN

GASOLINE -1.1 MLN 222 2.3 MLN -0.7 MLN

REFINERY RUNS -0.4 PCT PT 91.8 -0.6 PCT PT 0.9 PCT PT

NATGAS STORAGE -100 BCF TO -99 BCF (SIX FORECASTS)

FORECAST

Analysts estimated stockpiles of gasoline fell by about 1.1 million barrels last week, while distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, were expected to have decreased by about 300,000 barrels.

The rate of refinery utilization was estimated to have decreased by 0.4 percentage point from 91.8% of total capacity in the previous week, the poll found.

U.S. crude oil and distillate stocks fell, while gasoline stocks rose last week, market sources said, citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Tuesday.

Crude stocks fell 3.2 million barrels in the week ended Dec. 20, the sources said on condition of anonymity. Gasoline inventories rose by 3.9 million barrels, and distillate stocks fell by 2.5 million barrels, they said.

The poll was conducted ahead of a report from the American Petroleum Institute industry group at 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT) on Tuesday and one from the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy, at 1 p.m. EST (1800 GMT) on Friday.

The EIA’s weekly report, which is usually released on Wednesday, was delayed until Friday due to the Christmas holiday.

All figures for stocks are in millions of barrels. Refinery-rate changes are measured in percentage points.

Organization Crude Distillate Gasoline Refinery

runs

LSEG 1.5 -0.7 0.5 -0.4

Macquarie Group -3.8 0.9 2.5

Price Futures Group -3.0 -3.0 -3.0 -1.0

Ritterbusch Associates -2.0 1.9 -1.0 -0.4

Rystad Energy -0.6 -1.1 -2.7 0.3

(Reporting by Anmol Choubey in Bengaluru, Additional reporting by Brijesh Patel; Editing by Rod Nickel)