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Informist, Thursday, Mar. 20, 2025

MUMBAI – Crude oil inventories in the US, excluding those in the strategic petroleum reserve, rose to 437.0 million barrels in the week ended Friday, up 1.7 million barrels from the previous week, the US Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report. Analysts at Dow Jones had expected the crude oil stock to rise by 500,000 barrels. Inventories were at about 5% below the five-year average for this time of the year, the report further stated.

However, petroleum inventories for the period under review fell by 500,000 barrels from the week-ago period to 240.6 million barrels. Analysts polled by Dow Jones had predicted a fall of 2.4 million barrels for the week ended Friday. Petroleum stocks were 2% above the five-year average for this time of the year, the report said. Distillate fuel stocks fell 2.8 million barrels to 114.8 million barrels in the week ended Friday, in contrast to Dow Jones analysts' expectation of a rise of 100,000 barrels. Distillate fuel stocks were at about 6% below the five-year average for this time of the year.

Refinery utilisation rose to 86.9% for the week ended Friday, compared with 86.5% in the week ago period, according to the report. Crude oil production in the US, the largest producer of the commodity, fell marginally to 13.57 million barrels per day in the week ended Friday against 13.58 million barrels per day in the week ago period.

At 1309 IST, the most-active May contract of the West Texas Intermediate crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange was up 0.3% at $67.14 per barrel. Prices rose amid an uncertain outlook on a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. The two countries alleged that each side had attacked energy and oil facilities overnight, just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to a 30-day pause in attacks on energy infrastructure targets.

US crude oil imports averaged 5.4 million barrels per day in the week ended Friday, down 85,000 barrels per day from the previous week, the report showed. Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports have averaged about 5.6 million barrels per day, 11% less than the corresponding period last year.

The US imports crude oil from 10 countries. Of these, imports from four countries rose during the week ended Friday and imports from four countries fell. There were no imports from Libya and Ecuador. Imports of crude oil from Canada fell the most, by 541,000 barrels per day to 3.13 million barrels per day. Imports from Brazil fell by 135,000 barrels per day to 63,000 barrels per day.

Meanwhile, crude oil imports from Colombia rose by 277,000 barrels per day to 349,000 barrels per day, and imports from Nigeria rose to 193,000 barrels per day from nil, the report showed.

For the week ended Friday, crude oil exports from the US rose 1.35 million barrels per day to 4.64 million barrels per day, the report showed. The strategic petroleum reserve rose 300,000 barrels to 395.9 million barrels during the week.

Inventories of crude oil in Cushing, Oklahoma, a key delivery point for West Texas Intermediate crude, fell 1 million barrels to 23.5 million barrels in the week ended Friday, according to the report. Cushing is the designated delivery point for NYMEX crude oil futures contracts. Market participants closely monitor stockpiles in Cushing, as it has a storage capacity of about 90 million barrels.

End

US$1 = INR 86.36

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

Reported by Taniva Singha Roy

Edited by Nishant Maher

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