Gasoline Demand is Growing
May 7, 2020
Gasoline demand was up, and distillate demand was down in the weekly DOE inventory update. Distillate stocks increased by 9.52 million barrels and that put selling pressure on the market. Gasoline stocks were down 3.16 million barrels and that fact was overall supportive to gasoline which sold off less than the other products and is leading the charge higher today. Gasoline demand was up, and some are saying that is a sign of increased demand which is a good thing but overall it is still near 25 year lows.
Crude stocks were up 4.59 million barrels putting total stocks at 532.221 million barrels compared to 466.604 million barrels last year at this time a difference of + 65.617 million barrels. Crude production was 11.900 million barrels per day down 200,000 bpd. The decline in rigs and the shutdowns are starting to show up in the production numbers as last year at this time production was 12.2 million bpd.
Gasoline stocks were down 3.158 million barrels putting total stocks at 256.407 million barrels compared to 226.147 million barrels last year at this time a difference of +30.260 million barrels. Gasoline demand was 7.195 million barrels up 431,000 barrels compared with last year at this time when demand was 10.362 million bpd.
Distillate stocks were up 9.518 million barrels putting total stocks at 151.490 million barrels compared with 125.563 million barrels last year at this time a difference of +25.927 million barrels. Distillate demand was 4.058 million bpd down 431,000 bpd compares with a demand number last year at this time of 5.223 million bpd.
Propane inventories were up 2.541 million barrels with the Midwest stocks up 891,000 barrels and the Gulf Coast stocks up 1.186 million barrels.
S&P Global Platts Analytics said this week it has estimated around 4.6 million bpd of production cuts had been announced globally prior to Tuesday, with 1.34 million bpd being recorded in the United States, 945,000 bpd out of Canada. The Company though estimates approximately 13 million bpd needs to be shut in over the next two months. The OPC+ agreement calls for almost 10 million bpd of production to exit the market starting this month.
The inventory reports showed that another 1.7 million barrels went into the SPR which is helping to ease some of the maximum storage concerns and will hopefully prevent oil from trading below zero again.