US crude inputs to refineries decline, but gasoline output up:EIA

New York (Platts)--14Jul2004

US crude inputs to refineries declined by 223,000 b/d to average 15.835-mil
b/d in the week ended July 9, the US Energy Information Administration
reported Wednesday. EIA said US refineries operated at 95.2% of operable
capacity last week, down 1.5 percentage points from the previous week. EIA
also reported that US gasoline production, at 8.84-mil b/d, was up by 115,000
b/d compared to the previous week. The increase came primarily from the Gulf
Coast (PADD III), where production rose to 3.862-mil b/d from 3.597-mil b/d.
Increases were also recorded in the Midwest (PADD II), to 1.973-mil b/d from
1.952-mil b/d, and the Rocky Mountains (PADD IV), at 306,000 b/d versus
295,000 b/d, according to EIA's data. Other regions saw slight declines in
production. EIA also reported a decline in distillate output from US
refineries, to 3.974-mil b/d from 4.186-mil b/d, with only PADD IV and PADD V
showing slight increases. PADD III distillate output fell by 99,000 b/d to
1.969-mil b/d.

Production of heating oil also saw a weekly decline, to 958,000 b/d from the
prior week's 1.078-mil b/d. PADD II output fell by 60,000 b/d to 156,000 b/d,
while PADD III output dropped by 58,000 b/d to 513,000 b/d. Heating oil stocks
were up by 4.1-mil bbl to 44.5-mil bbl. For the similar week last year,
heating oil stocks stood at 39.1-mil bbl, according to EIA's statistics. For
the current week, East Coast heating oil stocks rose by 2-mil bbl to 25.1-mil
bbl, while Midwest stocks fell by 600,000 bbl to 7.3-mil bbl. Gulf Coast
stocks slipped by 300,000 bbl to 8.7-mil bbl, while West Coast stocks were up
by 300,000 bbl to 2.7-mil bbl. EIA also reported that crude imports to the US
declined week-on-week by 84,000 b/d, to 10.054-mil b/d. EIA said last week was
the eighth consecutive week crude imports have averaged above 10-mil b/d, "the
longest such streak ever." EIA, while not providing the origins of the latest
week's crude imports, noted that, "it appears that Saudi Arabia was the top
source last week."

EIA also reported a decline of 311,000 b/d in US gasoline imports, to 951,000
b/d. Nearly half of that decline occurred on the East Coast, where imports
dropped by 173,000 b/d to 906,000 b/d. Gulf Coast gasoline imports also fell,
by 85,000 b/d to 128,000 b/d, while the West Coast reported zero gasoline
imports for last week, down from the 54,000 b/d average of the prior week. EIA
also reported distillate fuel imports of 372,000 b/d last week, up 76,000 b/d
from the prior week. The heating oil component of that total was 80,000 b/d,
down by 28,000 b/d week-on-week. EIA also reported that US commercial crude
inventories, at 302.9-mil bbl; "remain near the middle of the average range
for this time of year." The agency also noted that it had reduced the amount
of crude in the country's Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the week ending July
2 to 662.9-mil bbl to correct an error in last week's data report. SPR
inventories stood at 662.4-mil bbl for the week ending July 9, EIA said.

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