US refinery crude inputs in need of sustained rise: EIA

New York (Platts)--28Mar2007

While inputs of crude oil into US refineries have started to rise
recently, they will "have to be sustained well above 15 million b/d this
spring and summer to help keep gasoline production sufficiently high to meet
expected demand increases," the US Energy Information Administration said
Wednesday.

EIA, in its latest "This Week in Petroleum" report, said that the 15
million b/d level could be reached as early as this week. EIA said that on a
moving four-week average basis, crude oil inputs began increasing two weeks
ago.

The agency said that in addition to lower inputs, gasoline markets have
tightened, and gasoline prices have risen, because of a reduction in gasoline
imports. It said total gasoline imports averaged over 1.1 million b/d in 2006,
but that until the release of data for last week was earlier Wednesday, "they
had not been above 1 million b/d for the previous seven weeks."

--Robert DiNardo, robert_dinardo@platts.com