The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said on December 28th that it had mixed news about the current level of American crude stocks.
On the one hand, U.S. crude stocks in the week ending December 22nd fell 1.3 million barrels from the previous week.
But, at 290.5 million barrels, the inventories were 1.6 million barrels higher than the same week in 1999, the first time this has occurred in 20 months.
Yet again, DOE spokesman Jonathan Cogan said that U.S. crude stocks for the end of December are traditionally higher than 300 million barrels. Cogan emphasized that in 1999, U.S. crude stocks were near record lows.
While the DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported the 1.3 million barrel crude stock drop on December 28th, The American Petroleum Institute (API) the previous day said that U.S. crude stocks were down 2.06 million barrels for the week ending December 22nd.
The EIA stated that distillate fuel stocks were lower by 1.5 million barrels than the week before, compared to API’s figures that distillate stocks had fallen by 1.9 million barrels.
While the EIA reported that gasoline stocks dropped by 2.6 million for the week, the API indicated a 2.1 million barrel draw. The EIA said that refinery use fell 0.3 percent to 94 percent.
The API reported no change in refinery use. The U.S. oil market took the bearish news in stride, however, which some analysts attribute to the fact that American oil firms are well stocked.
They contend that the 30 million barrels that the Clinton administration authorized for release in October displaced crude imports, leaving U.S. refiners’ crude inventories essentially unchanged for the past two months.
