New York (Platts)--29Apr2009

US gasoline inventories declined 4.695 million barrels to 212.612 million
barrels last week, as a combination of falling output and a drop-off in
imports sorely eroded the stock surplus against historical averages, an
analysis of the weekly oil data from the US Energy Information Administration
showed.

At 212.612 million barrels, gasoline stocks were 7.734 million barrels
above the five-year average and 1.523 million barrels above year-ago levels.

Refiners throttled back output gasoline, with production falling 298,000
b/d to 8.79 million b/d, a sign that there may have been maintenance issues
with some units since the crack spread was still at levels that made gasoline
output profitable. The NYMEX June RBOB crack spread averaged $11.33/barrel the
week ending April 24.

While output fell, imports declined 276,000 b/d to 841,000 b/d.

Low refiner output has been a response to a slowdown in gasoline demand.
On a week-over-week basis, implied gasoline demand edged up just 15,000 b/d to
9.151 million b/d. But on a four-week moving average, implied gasoline demand
was 0.1 percentage points lower than the previous week, and at 9.064 million
b/d was down 0.5% from year-ago levels.

While a decline in inventories at this time of year is fairly normal as
product starts to move out of primary storage through the distribution system
ahead of the start of driving season, this week's decrease appeared related to
refinery issues involving fluid catalytic crackers rather than a climb in
consumption.

Overall, crude fundamentals continued to deteriorate as stocks jumped
another 4.053 million barrels to 374.653 million barrels, the highest level
since the week ending August 31, 1990.

Yet, the EIA data had US commercial crude stocks were 3.17 million
barrels below the American Petroleum Institute's inventory level of 377.823
million barrels.

Crude imports stayed at sufficiently high levels while refinery inputs
fell again, keeping the stock-building trend intact. Crude imports were down
just 31,000 b/d at 9.824 million b/d, but with inputs at 14.334 million b/d,
stocks had to increase. Crude inputs edged down 182,000 b/d with declines
occurring in several regions.

Adding to overall bearish bias in the crude data was the second
consecutive stock build at the NYMEX delivery point in Cushing, Oklahoma.
Stocks at Cushing rose 221,000 barrels to 29.763 million barrels, 10.466
million barrels above year-ago levels.

--Linda Rafield, linda_rafield@platts.com