(Reuters) – Oil and fuel inventories are expected to have fallen last week, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday.
Three analysts polled by Reuters estimate that crude inventories fell by an average of about 2 million barrels in the week to December 20.
The poll was conducted ahead of a report from the American Petroleum Institute industry group at 4:30 PM EST (2130 GMT) on Tuesday and a report from the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy, at 1:00 PM EST ( 1800 GMT) on Friday.
The EIA’s weekly report, which is usually published on Wednesdays, has been postponed until Friday due to the Christmas holidays.
Crude inventories fell 934,000 barrels to 421 million barrels in the week ended Dec. 13, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a draw of 1.6 million barrels.
REUTERS PREDICT ACTUAL CHANGE LAST WEEK YEARS AGO
CHANGE FOR WEEK WEEK (EIA) CHANGE WEEK ENDED
ENDED ENDED 12/22/23
20/12/24 13/12/24
RAW -2.0 MILL 421 -0.9 MILL -7.1 MILL
DISTILLATE -1.1 MILL 118.2 -3.2 MILL 0.7 MILL
PETROL -2.7 MILL 222 2.3 MILL -0.7 MILL
REFINERY PRODUCTS -0.4 PCT PT 91.8 -0.6 PCT PT 0.9 PCT PT
NATGAS STORAGE -100 BCF TO -94 BCF (FOUR FORECASTS)
PREDICTION
Analysts estimate gasoline inventories fell by about 2.7 million barrels last week, while distillate inventories, including diesel and diesel fuel, were expected to fall by about 1.1 million barrels.
Refinery utilization is estimated to have fallen by 0.4 percentage points from 91.8% of total capacity in the previous week, the poll showed.
All figures for inventories are in millions of barrels. Changes in refinery rates are measured in percentage points.
Organization Crude distillate gasoline refinery
runs
Price Futures Group -3.0 -3.0 -3.0 -1.0
Ritterbusch Associates -2.0 1.9 -1.0 -0.4
Rystad Energy -0.6 -1.1 -2.7 0.3
