The weekly Department of Energy inventory data

  • crude oil inventories -2077K vs. +300K estimate
  • gasoline inventories 2795K vs 300K estimate
  • distillates inventories 9934K vs 2900K estimate
  • Cushing OK inventories -1739K vs -3395K last month
  • US refinery utilization 0.50% vs 0.90% estimate
  • crude oil implied demand 17676 vs 17467 last week
  • gasoline implied demand 7811.0 vs 7463.9 last week
  • distillates implied demand 3457.9 vs 4150 last week.

The private data yesterday showed:

  • crude oil -483K
  • Gasoline +1706K
  • Distilates +5917K
  • Cushing -2200K

Some wild swings away from expectations with crude oil inventories being depleted while gasoline and distillates showed much larger builds. Implied demand increased but is still well below the February/early March levels (see chart below).

Gasoline implied demand

Crude oil July futures were trading at $36.75 just prior to the report. The price is currently trading at $36.67