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US fuel oil inventories highest in four years on falling demand: EIA

http://www.chemnet.com   May 21,2015 Platts
US residual fuel oil inventories rose to their highest level in more than four years as demand remained persistently weak, Energy Information Administration data showed Wednesday.

Domestic stocks were up 1.124 million barrels to 40.236 million barrels for the week ended Friday, the highest volume since January 21, 2011, when inventories were at 41.654 million barrels, data from the EIA showed. US residual fuel stocks are 3.367 million barrels over the year-ago level, the highest such surplus since November.

Gulf Coast stocks rose to 25.285 million barrels, a 1.353 million barrels increase, while East Coast inventories were counted at 9.123 million barrels, a 232,000-barrel gain, the EIA numbers show.

Implied domestic demand fell to 143,000 b/d, a 49,000-barrel drop that marked buying interest well below the year-to-date average demand of 217,000 b/d, according to the data.

Imports rose to a three-week high of 234,000 b/d for the week ended May 15, while production levels also increased. US refineries produced 448,000 b/d of residual fuel oil, slightly higher than the year-to-date average production of 432,000 b/d, EIA data showed.

Midwest showed the strongest comparative production gains with a 48% increase that brought the region to a production rate of 65,000 b/d, its highest since the first week of April. The West Coast saw the biggest dropoff in fuel oil production. Refinery yield for the Pacific Coast fell to 5.5%, a 0.9% drop that resulted in production rates falling by 13,000 b/d to 126,000 b/d.
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