US crude oil inventories posts sixth straight week of decline - Natixis

Abhishek Deshpande, Research Analyst at Natixis, points out that US crude oil inventories fell by 1.75mn bbl wow in the week ended 12th May, the sixth straight week of inventory decline. 

Key Quotes

“Net crude oil imports rose by 0.58mn b/d wow to 7.5mn b/d. Exports rose by 0.39mn b/d wow. Domestic crude oil production fell marginally by 9,000 b/d, the first production decline since early February.  Crude oil stocks in Cushing rose marginally by 35,000 bbl wow. Total crude processing rate increased by 1.88% pts wow to 93%.”

“Oil Products

• Total oil products inventory rose by 6.02mn bbl wow driven by a 5.18mn bbl build in other oils stocks and a 2.01mn bbl build in unfinished oils stocks. This was partially offset by a 1.94mn bbl drawdown in distillate stocks. 
• Aggregate oil and oil product stocks rose by 4.27mn bbl wow.
• In addition, demand for oil products fell by 6.21% yoy.
• Distillate demand fell by 2.57% yoy and gasoline demand fell 3.11% yoy.”

“WTI has risen as the 1.75mn bbl drawdown reported by the EIA opposed earlier API estimates of a 0.88mn bbl build. WTI is currently up 1.21% in intraday trading.”