OIL: Crude Holds Gains Amid Middle East Focus After EIA Data
Crude prices are holding onto earlier gains after the updated EIA weekly petroleum inventory data amid focus on US-Iran talks and Saudi supplies. US diesel cracks are still down on the day with data showing a small drop in distillates stocks and lower exports on the week. US gasoline cracks have fallen slightly back closer to flat on the day with demand still just below normal. * US crude inventories for the week to Sep 18 showed an unexpected increase of 3mbbl and even more than estimated by API. The build was driven by a drop in exports back below 3.3mb/d, the lowest since early August, and an unexpected large drop in refinery runs, but partially offset by drop in imports below 5.9mb/d. Crude production was almost unchanged on the week at 13.94mb/d while Cushing stocks recovered to 23.75mbbl and SPR fell by another 0.4mbbl. * Refinery utilisation dropped more than expected by 2.8%pts to 94.0% driven mostly by the Midwest and Gulf Coast. Midwest refinery runs fell nearly 500kb/d amid outages in the region. Despite the drop runs remain strong and well above the previous five-year average. * Gasoline inventories showed larger than expected draw of 1.69mbbl with a dip in production a
Crude prices are holding onto earlier gains after the updated EIA weekly petroleum inventory data amid focus on US-Iran talks and Saudi supplies. US diesel cracks are still down on the day with data showing a small drop in distillates stocks and lower exports on the week. US gasoline cracks have fallen slightly back closer to flat on the day with demand still just below normal. * US crude inventories for the week to Sep 18 showed an unexpected increase of 3mbbl and even more than estimated by API.
9mb/d. 4mbbl. 0% driven mostly by the Midwest and Gulf Coast. Midwest refinery runs fell nearly 500kb/d amid outages in the region.
Despite the drop runs remain strong and well above the previous five-year average. 69mbbl with a dip in production and small increased in weekly implied demand. Both imports and exports fell on the week. The four-week average implied gasoline demand edged lower in line with the seasonal trend and remains just below the previous five-year average for the time of year.
4mbbl largely in the Midwest, with a dip in production and imports set against a drop in exports to the lowest since late June and higher weekly implied demand. The four-week average distillates implied demand rose on the week but is still well below seasonal normal levels. 23$/bbl