In its weekly petroleum status report, the EIA said US commercial crude inventories increased by 6.3 million bbl for the week ended Oct. 19 (OGJ Online, Oct. 24, 2018). At 422.8 million bbl, US crude oil inventories are about 2% above the 5-year average for this time of year, the report indicated. Separately, the American Petroleum Institute said its own estimates showed US crude inventories increased week-over-week to 418.4 million bbl.

The update was somewhat bullish relative to consensus, Raymond James analysts said in a note Oct. 25. “Big Three” petroleum inventories (crude, gasoline, distillates—including SPR) fell by 1.9 million bbl vs. consensus estimates calling for no change. As always, regardless of their week-to-week movements, US inventories do not constitute a holistic picture of global (or even total OECD) inventories, but they represent the only “real-time” data source,” they said.

Energy prices

The December light, sweet crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 39¢ on Oct 24 to $66.82/bbl. The January contract was up 34¢ to settle at $66.96/bbl.

The NYMEX natural gas price for November was down just over 4¢ to $3.16/MMbtu.

Ultralow-sulfur diesel for November declined less than 1¢ to remain at a rounded $2.25/gal. The NYMEX reformulated gasoline blendstock for November was down just over 1¢ to a rounded $1.82/gal.
 

Brent crude oil for December was down 27¢ to $76.17/bbl on London’s International Commodity Exchange. The January contract gained 2¢, also reaching $76.17/bbl. The gas oil contract for November fell $2.50 on Oct. 24 to close at $700/tonne.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ basket of crudes for Oct. 24 averaged $75.04/bbl, down $2.07.