The week's tank count
The Energy Information Administration's 16 September highlights show commercial crude inventories excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell 0.6 million barrels to 423.4 million barrels in the week ending 11 September. That level is 1 per cent above the five-year average.[1]
In the same week gasoline inventories rose 0.8 million barrels to 207.7 million barrels, still 5 per cent below the five-year average. Distillate inventories rose 1.6 million barrels to 107.9 million barrels, 13 per cent below the five-year average.[1]
Barrels through the still come before barrels on a screen
Refineries processed 17.3 million barrels a day, down 256,000 barrels a day from the previous week, at 96.8 per cent capacity utilization. The modest crude draw is a separate count from whether product tanks were refilled.[1]
The 0.6 million barrel crude decline does not close the distillate gap; that gap also fits a processing-rate and yield constraint. An alternative reading is that distillate demand cooled enough to slow the refill; the highlights put four-week distillate product supplied down 3.3 per cent year over year.[1]
What the next highlights would confirm
The signal is the distillate stock percentage versus the five-year average in the next weekly highlights. A narrower gap than 13 per cent would show the tank actually filling; a gap that holds would show that calm in the crude count had not repaired the product balance.[1]