Regional Diesel Inventories Hit Lowest Levels Since 1990
May 24, 2022
The White House is considering tapping the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, created in 2000 to help with diesel supply issues. The impact of the release would be limited by the relatively small size of the reserve, which only contain 1 million barrels of diesel.
US East Coast distillates fuel oil inventories have fallen to just 22 million barrels compared with a pre-pandemic five-year seasonal average of 43 million barrels. Regional inventories have depleted to the lowest level since record began in 1990, leading to intense upward pressure on regional prices.
According to the AAA , the national average price of diesel stood at $5.56 per gallon as of Sunday, down from a record of $5.58 per gallon set last week. The situation is worse in the US Northeast, where a number of refineries have shut down since 2000. AAA reported that the average price of diesel in New York state is $6.25 per gallon, up 102% from a year ago.
Iran has been increasingly helping Venezuela revive its oil industry.
From Reuters. Russia’s flagship Urals crude oil sitting on the water is triple the pre-war average, Vortexa said, even as Russian seaborne oil exports fell to 6.7 million barrels per day so far in May, down about 15% from the 7.9 million barrels per day in February. Volume reported sitting at sea is 62 million barrels.
Germany’s economy minister said he expects the EU will impose an embargo on Russian crude in a matter of days. This is offering support to crude prices.
Negative for prices were comments from International Monetary Fund director who said that although a world recession was unlikely in developed countries it could not be ruled out completely.