(Reuters) – U.S. crude oil stockpiles were expected to have fallen last week while gasoline and distillate inventories likely rose, an extended Reuters poll showed on Wednesday.
Nine analysts polled by Reuters estimated that on average crude inventories fell by about 1.6 million barrels in the week to Jan. 17.
The poll was conducted ahead of a report from the American Petroleum Institute industry group, due at 4:30 p.m. ET (2130 GMT) on Wednesday, and another from the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy, at 12:00 p.m. ET (1700 GMT) on Thursday. Both reports were delayed by a day due to the Martin Luther King Jr. Day federal holiday on Monday.
Crude inventories fell by 2 million barrels to 412.7 million barrels in the week ended Jan. 10, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a draw of 992,000 barrels.
REUTERS FORECAST ACTUAL FOR PREVIOUS WEEK YR-AGO CHANGE
CHANGE FOR WEEK WEEK (EIA) CHANGE WEEK ENDED
ENDED ENDED 01/19/24
01/17/25 01/10/25
CRUDE -1.6 412.7 -2.0 MLN -9.2 MLN
MLN
DISTILLATE 0.3 132.0 3.1 MLN -1.4 MLN
MLN
GASOLINE 2.3 243.6 5.9 MLN 4.9 MLN
MLN
REFINERY -0.8 91.7 -1.6 PCT PT -7.1 PCT PT
RUNS PCT PT
NATGAS -300 BCF TO -225 BCF (NINE FORECASTS)
STORAGE
FORECAST
Analysts estimated stockpiles of gasoline rose by about 2.3 million barrels last week, while distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, were expected to have risen by about 300,000 barrels.
The rate of refinery utilization was estimated to have decreased by 0.8 percentage point from 91.7% 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 -1.4 1.6 2.2 -0.7
Commodity Research Group 0.6 -0.6 2.9 -0.8
Confluence Group 1.0 2.0 2.5 -2.0
Excel Futures -2.4 3.9 4.7 -0.8
LSEG -2.1 1.0 0.5 0.2
Macquarie Group -7.9 -0.6 3.2 -0.6
Price Futures Group -3.0 -3.0 -3.0 -1.0
Ritterbusch Associates 1.4 -2.0 2.5 -1.2
Rystad Energy -4.2 0.6 2.2 -0.8
(Reporting by Sherin Elizabeth Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Nia Williams)
