US crude inputs, stocks fall, gasoline demand grows: EIA

US crude inputs, stocks fall, gasoline demand grows: EIA

New York (Platts)--12Jul2006

Crude oil inputs to US refineries fell by 444,000 b/d to just under 15.5
million b/d in the week ended July 7, as refineries usage continued to slip,
to 90.5% from the prior week's 93.1% level, the US Energy Information
Administration reported Wednesday.

Although not detailed in the EIA report, the decline in utilization
appeared to be linked to a crude unit being down at the Sunoco Philadelphia
refinery complex, and to sharp run cuts at Louisiana refineries owned by
ConocoPhillips and Citgo as a result of a the partial closure beginning late
last month of the Calcasieu Ship Channel from an oil spill. The ship channel
has since been reopened, but there is no word yet that the Sunoco crude unit
has been restarted.

As a result of the lower throughput, gasoline production from US
refineries dropped slightly last week. EIA said in its weekly statistical
report that they averaged 9.176 million b/d last week, compared with 9.207
million b/d in the prior week. Distillate fuel production rose to 4.352
million b/d from 4.164 million b/d, week-on-week, according to EIA's data.

The agency's data also showed that US crude oil imports fell sharply, to
9.619 million b/d from 10.539 million b/d in the prior week. The agency said
that over the last four weeks, crude oil imports have averaged over 10.4
million b/d, a decrease of 160,000 b/d from the comparable four weeks last
year.

Gasoline imports last week averaged 1.099 million b/d, down from 1.271
million b/d, while distillate fuel imports, at 338,000 b/d, were up from the
prior week's 257,000 b/d level.

EIA said that while US commercial crude oil inventories bell by 6 million
barrels from the previous week to 335.3 million barrels, they remain "well
above the upper end of the average range for this time of year."

And it noted that while gasoline stocks decreased by 426,000 barrels last
week to 212.651 million barrels, they "remain in the upper half of the average
range.

Distillate fuel stocks rose by 2.6 million barrels last week to 129.9
million barrels, putting them "above the upper end of the average range for
this time of year," said the EIA report. It noted that a large increase in
ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel "more than compensated for a decline in regular
diesel fuel and a slight decline in high sulfur distillate fuel (heating oil)
inventories."

The EIA report also noted that total products supplied over the last four
weeks has averaged over 20.8 million b/d a decline of 1.6% from the same
period last year. But it pointed out that over the last four weeks, gasoline
demand has averaged nearly 9.6 million b/d, or some 1.7% above the same period
last year.

--Robert DiNardo, robert_dinardo@platts.com

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