Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 13
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
US commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, decreased by 2.2 million barrels from the previous week, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its Weekly Petroleum Status Report.
“At 533.4 million barrels, US crude oil inventories are near the upper limit of the average range for this time of year. Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 3 million barrels last week, but are in the upper half of the average range,” said the report.
At the same time, EIA estimates that US crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.7 million barrels per day during the week ending Apr. 7, or 268,000 barrels per day more than the previous week’s average.
During the period, US crude oil imports averaged 7.9 million barrels per day, up by 28,000 barrels per day from the previous week.
“Over the last four weeks, the country’s crude oil imports averaged about 8.1 million barrels per day, 3 percent above the same four-week period last year,” said EIA.
This is while the US total motor gasoline imports, including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components, last week averaged 488,000 barrels per day, according to the report.
EIA estimates that the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil was $52.25 per barrel on Apr. 7, $1.71 over last week’s price and $12.51 above a year ago.
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